


(Your love) Ain't as tame as the ones you're shit talkin'

by Nicini



Series: MoriMori [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff and Crack, Fluff and Humor, Friends to Lovers, Haikyuu!! Manga Spoilers, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Honestly they are all getting on each other's nerves, How Do I Tag, Humor, I Don't Even Know, Japanese Men’s National Volleyball Team (Haikyuu!!), Japanese National Team, Komori Motoya is a Little Shit, M/M, Miya Atsumu is a Little Shit, Olympics, Post-Time Skip, SakuAtsu, SakuAtsu try to to play matchmakers, Sakusa Kiyoomi is a Little Shit, Self-Indulgent, Team Bonding, Team Dynamics, This ship is now named MoriMori, Yaku Morisuke is a Little Shit, and they were ROOMMATES, omg they were roommates, well...they try
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:53:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 32,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27264556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nicini/pseuds/Nicini
Summary: Yaku definitely hadn't wanted to end up here, but alas here he was. Humiliated.By the very and only person he didn't want to be humiliated by. It was a nightmare.In the silence that spread out between them, Yaku spared a thought to seriously wonder about how Miya fucking Atsumu found out about his well kept hidden crush on Olympic teammate and fellow libero Komori Motoya. Where did he go wrong?Damn that stupid bleached blonde and his smirk when he sat down oh so innocently beside an unassuming Yaku, raised brow and teasing lilt in his voice as he nearly purred, "Ohhh~? So ya have yer eyes set on dear Komo-kun? What would his cousin say 'bout that, I wonder?"This was the beginning of Yaku Morisuke's personal hell.~In which Sakusa and Atsumu try to play matchmakers to get Yaku and Komori together. It goes as well as you expect.
Relationships: Komori Motoya & Sakusa Kiyoomi, Komori Motoya/Yaku Morisuke, Miya Atsumu & Yaku Morisuke, Miya Atsumu/Sakusa Kiyoomi
Series: MoriMori [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2084964
Comments: 88
Kudos: 109





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey!  
> So thank you very much for your interest by clicking on this fic.  
> When the national rooster released back in July and when I saw the different answers of Yaku and Komori...well. I began to wonder about their dynamic and this kinda is the result. I think in that week Twitter was also going feral about a YakuAtsu dynamic and I honestly loved it so much, so you can expect to get a lot of their friendship...when it finally happens. The idea for this fic, of SakuAtsu trying to play matchmakers for Komori and Yaku, does stem from [this tweet](https://twitter.com/sakukiyoo/status/1283391181678874624) by a Sakusa Kiyoomi RP account tho. When I read it, it just didn't let go of my mind, so just a thank you to them for making me think about this whole dynamic that has been sitting in my draft for months. The actual matchmaking in this fic is going to be different though, haha.  
> Also, the title is taken from Wake Up, Sunshine by All Time Low. I know the lyrics actually say Your life but I took creative liberty with it, so yeah.  
> Without further ado, I hope you all enjoy this fic!

Yaku definitely hadn't wanted to end up here, but alas here he was. Humiliated.  
By the very and only person he didn't want to be humiliated by. It was a nightmare.

In the silence that spread out between them, Yaku spared a thought to seriously wonder about how Miya fucking Atsumu found out about his well kept hidden crush on Olympic teammate and fellow libero Komori Motoya. Where did he go wrong?  
Damn that stupid bleached blonde and his smirk when he sat down oh so innocently beside an unassuming Yaku, raised brow and teasing lilt in his voice as he nearly purred, "Ohhh~? So ya have yer eyes set on dear Komo-kun? What would his cousin say 'bout that, I wonder?"

This was the beginning of Yaku Morisuke's personal hell.

*

When Yaku had stepped to the first team meeting right in the Ajinomoto National Training centre in his hometown Tokyo, suitcase in one hand and pushing his sunglasses out of the way with the other, his gaze flickered through all of his teammates for the following months. Most of them he had encountered in high school, but if he was honest, he did not keep track of the japanese V.League, so he wasn’t too sure about how everyone evolved. He only did a quick internet search on everyone, but figured that he’d get to know them all enough through training.

Seeing that still he was the only one who hasn’t played them once after going pro, he nodded with a polite smile, before looking at a familiar face, who already sprung into his view. “Hey, hey, hey! Yaku! You’re here!!” Bokuto was still as loud as back then and laughed before wrapping Yaku into a hug. A soft smile sneaked onto Yaku’s face as he reciprocated the greeting before his gaze landed on an orange haired head whose face lighted up when he caught his eyes.

“Yaku-san!” 

“Chibi-chan! Long time no see, huh?” With arms akimbo, Yaku grinned widely at the spiker, but before he could say anything else he heard another voice chime up. Registering the words, he frowned.

“Chibi-chan? Isn’t he smaller than Shouyou-kun?”

Yaku turned towards the speaker, an intense gaze on his face as he scrutinized the bleached blonde hair and lidded eyes. Atsumu Miya, setter for the MSBY Black Jackals, his mind provided. From the corner of his eyes he could see Bokuto shaking his head at Miya in a useless warning.  
The thing was, Yaku had grown up. Back then in high school, he would have snapped and probably picked a fight, but playing in Russia had matured him. In Russia he was the smallest player in the entire Super league. The average height was way higher than here in Japan, so it had been normal to be called short frequently. However, Yaku had established himself. As a libero he didn’t need to be tall, his size didn’t matter, only his hard work and dedication and he had made a name for himself. Nowadays, no one dared to try to insult him by using his height. Seemed like he had to do that all over again here in Japan and he would make that clear for everyone right here, right now.  
He forced a smile onto his face that he normally only gave to players on the opposite court who were on the brink of breaking down, before he spoke with a sharp edge, “Oh. I’m sorry, but you can speak directly to me, you know? I won’t bite,” He would. “I do prefer it to be addressed and not talked over. And by the way, why exactly do you think you have any right to say something about what I call Hinata? And what has my height to do with that?” By his last sentence Yaku's gaze turned into a glare and hey, it seemed like Miya was actually intimidated. At least his opened jaw indicated that. Nice. 

The momentary silence was interrupted by a snort beside Miya and loud cackling laughter from Hoshiumi, who made his way over to Yaku, slung an arm around his shoulder and grinned. "I think you and I are going to become very good friends, Yaku. Fuck these tall people, right?"

Yaku only raised an eyebrow, before mumbling, "They aren't even that tall," which seemed to delight Hoshiumi even further, before he clapped him onto the back once more and went further along to jump into a conversation with Hinata.

Before he could continue the conversation though, seeing as he was the last person to arrive, the people in charge welcomed them all. They explained how the team was going to be put into dorms for the next two weeks of the first training camp and because space was limited, they were all going to have to room with someone else. 

Yaku saw how glances were exchanged, the members already thinking about whom they wanted to share space with when it was Miya's voice that cut through the mumbling. "I call dibs on Omi-kun!" he exclaimed rather loudly and stared accusingly at Komori who just rolled his eyes and sniped back, "You can have him! I didn't want to room with my cousin anyway! Just don't come crying when he throws you out of it!" and then Komori even stuck his tongue out. 

"Could you idiots stop being so annoying?” The mentioned spiker grumbled, although he made no point of actually clearing things up, but the fact that he didn’t move away from his spot next to Miya, was answer enough.

Yaku however was still a little bit confused. “Omi-kun?” he mumbled disbelievingly as he stared at the pair that seemed so different.  
A laugh next to him made him look up to Komori, who had crossed the way to him and had followed his sight. “They are in a relationship, in case you didn’t know.”

“Okaaay...wait what?!” Yaku stared into the other libero’s eyes, then to the odd pair and then back to Komori, who just chuckled.

“Yeah, I know. But,” and now Komori got louder and almost shouted back to the pair, “they are both jerks so they deserve each other.”

“Fuck off, Komori! Yer just jealous!”

Yaku snorted at the exchange before Komori spoke up again. “So, what do you say? How about we room together? We liberos gotta stick together, right?”

Yaku looked back into the room where pairs were already made and then, “YOU ALL WERE ALREADY IN HIS TEAM AT ONE POINT, GO AWAY! I’M GOING TO ROOM WITH HINATA SHOUYOU AND NONE OF YOU TALL FUCKS IS GOING TO CHANGE THAT!”  
Right. He was not going to unfold whatever that was and looked back to Komori again instead. 

“Yeah, I think that’d be great.”

*

While they were unpacking in their room, Yaku and Komori made light conversation, talking about everything and nothing.  
It was easy, Komori was a positive person, who just never ran out of conversation starters and both of them caught up on what it was like to play at this stage now.

“So, what do you feel about being on the same team as your cousin again?” Yaku wondered as he put his folded sport shirts into the wardrobe.

“Hmm...I’m happy of course. It’s really nice to have family around, you know? And it’s been really a long time since I stood on the same court as him. Nostalgic. And it’s also really a relief to know that his wicked spikes are a problem for our opponents and not me for once. Those bitches are really hard to deal with,” Komori answered as he stepped out of the bathroom where he just put his toiletries.

Yaku actually let out an annoyed groan at his answer, “Please, don’t remind me. They were absolutely a pain in the ass back in high school. I don’t want to imagine how they are nowadays.” 

Komori seemed absolutely amused at his reaction. “Oh yeah, true. We did pummel Nekoma into the ground, didn’t we?” The glare that followed, made Komori lift his arms in defense. “Sorry, just kidding. Actually, you were annoying to play against, too. I remember Sakusa complaining about all of your team’s digs and you as a libero were the centre of that defense. I did admire that, you know?” 

"Well, I can say the same to you. I mean, you were the one who was referred to as the number one libero." There was an edge to his voice as he finished putting his clothes into the wardrobe and turned back to Komori who leaned on a wall and had observed him. Yaku was an honest person, so he continued with his thoughts without a bother. "But things change. And I did not fly all the way from Russia back to Tokyo only to aim for second place." 

They eyed each other up for a moment before a smile broke onto Komori's face. "Likewise. But hey, tell me more about what it's like to play and live in Russia, okay? And I'll tell you all the secrets and quirks of our team members. You haven't played in the V.League at all, right?" Just like that Komori broke their little rivalry tension and both of them continued to chatter while making themselves comfortable on their facing beds.

"Shut up! No way, he did not do that! You can't be serious!"

"I swear on my life that it happened exactly like that!"

Their laughter filled the room as Yaku continued to shake his head disbelievingly and then fell backwards onto his mattress to stare at the ceiling. 

Again there was a moment of silence between them before Komori spoke up again.  
"You know, what's also funny?"

"Huh?" Yaku turned his head to Komori who sat across his own bed, leaning against the wall for support and looking down at him.

"The first time I heard that you were joining the national team and I actually researched you I almost didn't recognize you at all. Your appearance changed so much."

"Uhm," Yaku hieved himself up again and ran a hand through his hair, not quite sure how to answer. "I just grew my hair out and discovered what hair products are. It's not that deep."

"Didn't say that it was. I just noticed. But don't worry, you look good. Your new style suits you, actually."

Yaku after all this time still couldn't handle some compliments that well. And so he could almost feel how the blush creeped onto his cheeks and scratched his neck in embarrassment. "Thanks." His eyes caught the clock, happy about the distraction. "We should probably get going. I don't want to be late."

*

When Komori and Yaku entered the gym, some others of the team were already there.  
Miya was just about to serve a ball and put his hand up, before closing it into a fist in a dramatic manner. Watching this, Yaku couldn’t stop a snort coming out of him, before he fully laughed, which made the team look at him, with a disgruntled Atsumu behind. “What...what are you doing, Miya?” he pressed out in between laughs. He really didn't want to antagonize the setter that much, but damn. What was that pre-serve routine? “You do realize that it’s just us here and there’s no music to be cut off?” Yaku teased before starting his stretches.

“What’s yer problem, Yakkun?!” Miya just whined, ignoring the snicker that echoed through the room.

“Nothing. Sorry,” Yaku grinned, not being sorry at all, “It just caught me off guard that you are still doing this after all these years. Just...let me finish stretching, and I’ll receive those serves, ‘kay?”  
Miya stared at him for a bit, eyes screaming _you can try if you want_ , before shrugging. 

“He’s right, you know? It does look quite ridiculous,” Sakusa exclaimed, which made Atsumu pout.

“Yer s’posed to be on my side, Omi-Omi!”  
Sakusa just blinked in response, before turning his back on him to wander over to the other side of the gym to Aran and Bokuto.

“Alright, fine! You ready, Miya?” Yaku hopped onto the other side of the court and got into position, amused eyes turning serious as he pierced at the setter. For a moment Miya’s eyes widened at the sudden change before he smiled.  
He counted his steps, turned, tossed the ball into the air, jumped and then slammed the ball with a powerful jump serve. It felt good as it left his palm, but the next thing he knew, Yaku had cleanly received it, eyes alight as it bounced to where a setter would be.  
“That all you got, Miya?”  
Oh. A feral grin spread onto Atsumu’s face as he crossed his eyes with the smirking libero. This was going to be _fun_.

*

Practice had ended and Yaku thought they were all slowly but surely coming together. It had been a mess at first when they started trying to play a set, 6 vs 6. Hyakuzawa and Yaku had kind of synced up after a while by talking a bit about how they’d like the other to position themselves. After some trial and error, their defense got increasingly better with them being the first and last line of defense. All of the other plays also slowly came together and they could almost be considered a team. Yaku thought that as mismatched and different as all of them were, they had a pretty good chance of winning and a great rooster. Everyone deserved their place and it made Yaku kind of proud to be able to say that he was here. That he was part of this.

Stretching out beside Komori, he still decided to ask him about some concerns he had though. “Say, Komori...is that normal?” 

“Huh?” The other libero tilted his head a bit in question.

“You know...these two. You said they were together, but like...they’ve been fighting and sniping at each other the whole practice long when they weren’t actively playing. Did something happen?” Yaku wondered as he observed Sakusa and Miya a few meters in front of him, calling each other names, probably. They were a bit too far away to hear the words clearly, but it seemed like Sakusa was annoyed. Yaku really didn’t want the tension between them to get to the team, and he kind of got concerned.  
Komori followed his line of sight as he chuckled and then inched a bit closer to Yaku to make sure they wouldn’t hear his answer. “Yeah, don’t worry. That’s normal for them.”

This only made Yaku furrow his brow even further. “I mean, it’s not exactly my place to say something, but isn’t that...kind of an unhealthy relationship?”

The laughter that he got out of Komori at that, made him straighten out of the stretch he was currently in to look at Komori as if he was growing a second head.  
“Look, Yaku. I like to think that I’ve been following their story from the beginning, and I swear to this day I still don’t understand their relationship. I don’t think they do either. But,” and now Komori seemed to muse about his next words, “They really are made for each other. It might look kind of weird from the outside, but trust me, they make each other happy and I don’t think either of them would feel more at ease with someone else. They argue a lot, but they calm down just as fast and I think sometimes they just annoy and fight each other because they think it’s funny? I’m not really sure. Personally, I think they are kind of cute together. Sometimes. Don’t tell them I said that though, I’ll never live that down.” With his last words, Komori winked briefly at Yaku, when they were both interrupted.

“Komori, stop talking shit about me. I know that you are doing it!” Sakusa shouted at him, as if he knew that he was the topic of the talk between the two liberos.

“I did not! Stop thinking everything is about you!”

“Komori. I’ve known you for way too long. Don’t try to lie at me. You had your gossip face on. You were gossiping. Stop it.”

“I don’t have a gossip face! What the hell?!” Komori offendedly exclaimed. 

“You do.”

“Do not.”

“You do! Now, stretch properly and stop gossiping.”

Komori just stuck out his tongue at him before turning to Yaku, who had watched their interaction with an amused smile.  
“Stretch properly and stop gossiping.” Komori grumbled in a poor imitation as he rolled his eyes. “I take back what I said. They are both awful and evoke the worst in each other. We can be happy that they are together because nobody would like to be the poor souls who’d be stuck with them otherwise.”

At those words Yaku laughed out loud, earning a glare from both Sakusa and Atsumu.

Looking around and finding the rest of the team also bickering around with each other, Yaku mused about his decision to come here. He had to take some extra steps, from sending videos and clips from his plays, to writing applications to having many late night calls, to even be considered for the Japanese National Team tryouts as he hadn’t played a single game in the V.League. In the end, it had paid off. And from the moment he saw the rooster and realized that this was going to be a big high school reunion, he had known that this team would be a chaotic mess. Yeah...this team was absolutely chaotic and it certainly would get onto his nerves and probably get annoying, but Yaku already had a soft spot for them. A smile tugged on his face. He would make this opportunity count.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading this!  
> So, I have the whole fic plotted out & I already finished writing 3 chapters, so a weekly update until they are posted and we'll see how it goes after that. I won't guarantee an update schedule for the complete fic, but I do intend to finish it, it just might take a bit.  
> On another note: I'd be really happy if you'd give my work a kudos, bookmark or even a comment if you like it. I would absolutely love to know what you think about it, but no pressure tho. The fact that you are reading this self indulgent thing is amazing enough.  
> Also, you can scream and talk to me about Haikyuu on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/nicini02) if you want. I also sometimes post a bit about my thoughts while writing.
> 
> Thanks for reading and till next time! <3


	2. Chapter 2

It began with a simple poster.

A few days had passed, filled with training, laughter and bickering in between the team. They came together, had dinners, talked about everything and nothing.

Then the poster for the national rooster was released for the public. Honestly, Yaku had almost forgotten that he had to send in answers for these a while back and it hadn't been a topic. Ever.  
But now it was released and the team, having some lunch together, looked at the answers. Nobody knew what the others had sent in and honestly, it shouldn't be as funny as it was, but here they were.

"Aggressive sets and serves? Miya, was that a declaration of war? Did you know what Kageyama would answer?" Hakuba laughed loudly, pointing between the two setters who were eyeing each other. A smack let Yaku's eyes wander to Aran, who had facepalmed himself and was mumbling something that sounded like "Ya dumbass. Atsumu. These Miyas...dumbasses." 

"Well, it's the truth! My sets and serves are more aggressive than yers!" Kageyama's face scrunched up in an annoyed expression as he answered, "Is that so?" which led to another round of laughter. 

Miya, who didn't want to be the one getting clowned again, diverted the attention to his significant other. "Why don't we talk about Omi-kun? I will do what I can? Could ya be any less motivated than that? Look at Shouyou-kun! He said he'll do anything!" 

"Not everyone can be a bouncing ball of jumps and energy." 

"But he's right, Omi-kun! You should give us your 120%! We want to win this whole thing!" Bokuto added enthusiastically. 

Sakusa just glared at his teammate, but couldn't answer before Hinata chimed in, "I think Omi-san is fine as he is!" 

"Wait a moment. Is no one going to mention that Yaku said he wants to kill our opponents?" Bokuto suddenly changed the topic as he stared back at the poster, which prompted laughter.

"I knew I wasn't imagining Yaku the other day staring me down as if he was seconds away from murdering me", Hyakuzawa murmured as he looked at Yaku with narrowed eyes. 

Yaku on the other hand just sipped on his tea before he decided to answer, "I did not say that I wanted to murder them. I just said that I wanted to break their spirits," He shrugged his shoulders and smiled ominously, knowing absolutely well what kind of image he was delivering.

"That's the same difference!" Miya shouted, when Hakuba suddenly smirked. 

"Does it really wonder anyone? I mean, we all know that shorter people have more anger compressed into their bodys, right?" 

Yaku's glare immediately landed on him as he hissed, "What did you just say?!" while at the same time Hoshiumi shouted, "THE FUCK, GAO?! YOU WANNA FIGHT?"

Hakuba seemed absolutely undeterred as he grinned. "See? Case in point." 

“Hey guys, please don’t fight, okay?” Komori tried to defuse the situation, but it didn’t seem to deter the mood, as Kageyama spoke up. “Komori really is the complete opposite of Yaku.”

“Yeah, right? Just like his answer. He wants to inspire us on court. It’s really good to know to have you there.” Hinata nodded to that.

Yaku was beginning to feel a bit called out. He was there, too?! 

“I think there’s nothing wrong about Yaku wanting to crush our opponents. It is our goal to win after all.” Ushijima declared deadpan. 

Aran added, “Yeah. At the end we all should be grateful to both of them. The duality of our liberos is truly impeccable.”

Yaku und Komori shared a look, not really knowing what they should say to that and soon the conversation drifted off as other answers were picked apart.  
Aran’s words however would haunt Yaku for a while longer.

*

It started slowly, but at practice Yaku found his eyes wandering over to Komori whenever they could. Yaku was sure about his playing style, crushing and leading their opponents to make mistakes was a surefire way to play and it worked great for him. He wouldn’t be here otherwise. However, Komori was really the complete opposite. Where Yaku was all intense and glaring eyes, Komori had a smile on his face.  
Somehow it irked Yaku. He wasn’t quite sure what exactly it was, but he could almost see how the whole team seemed to ease up, when Komori received.

 _I want to do plays that will inspire my team._ Yaku narrowed his eyes as he stared at the other libero. He certainly was able to do that. But how? Yaku was not going to change his plays, but he wanted to know. He wanted to know what exactly made Komori’s digs so different to his own. At the end of the day they were both just getting the ball up again. It wasn’t like Komori would save balls Yaku couldn’t. They both dug the same volleyballs, the same plays. So, why did his plays evoke fear and Komori’s ease? It didn’t make sense. It wasn’t just the smiles and gazes, it somehow started with the way they stepped onto the court. The whole vibe and atmosphere was just different.  
Yaku was determined to find out what exactly it was.

It hadn’t stopped at practice though. Yaku was finding himself observing Komori outside of the court, too. The way his eyes lit up and eyebrows raised whenever he was telling a story, the way he easily winked at other people as if he was sharing a secret, the way he teased Sakusa and never let a chance go to make fun of him. The way his shoulders tensed for a second when he was called, the way laughter fell easily from him and how he always included everyone in a conversation. The way he always seemed to hum a random song while brushing his teeth. The way it became routine for Komori to always ask Yaku about his thoughts about some random thing that had happened that day while they were both lying in their bed at night, lights out and exhausted from the day. The way Komori’s tired voice still had an upbeat tone to it when he wished him goodnight. The way he immediately fell asleep in a matter of seconds after doing that.  
Yaku watched it all, the sound of Aran's voice saying "The duality of our liberos is truly impeccable" always on his mind.

What did that even mean? Yaku found no answer to his questions.

*

“I am telling ya, he hates me.” Sakusa just rolled his eyes as he went through his nighttime skincare routine. “No really, Omi. Please, listen to me.”

“I am listening. And I’m telling you, no. He doesn’t. He’s just honest with his opinions, that’s all.” Sakusa emerged from their bathroom in a pyjama and the fluffy white headband with rabbit ears that Atsumu had gifted him a few weeks ago, was still on full display and kept his hair out of his face. The sight made Atsumu’s heart clench and he sometimes still couldn’t believe that he was the one who had the honor of seeing this soft side of Kiyoomi. He would love to kiss him right about now, but...he would do it later. When he could appreciate him fully while not being occupied by negative thoughts.  
Because this was more important and he wasn’t about to let go of this topic.

“Well, then he’s honest with the fact that he hates me, because he ALWAYS is antagonizing me. Am I the only one who notices that??” 

“Okay, now you’re being ridiculous. It’s not like you make it hard for him to clown you.” Omi raised his brow in a perfect arc while he scrutinized him and okay, maybe Atsumu would take back his thoughts about Omi being soft to him, because at this very moment he was certainly not. 

“OMI! I am a perfectly functioning human. Also haven’t ya noticed how he keeps jabbing at me? Like today at lunch when he kept making fun of me and then proceeded to insult me? Why would he do that if he wouldn't have a personal grudge against me?"

"You...you literally dropped some of your food. It almost landed on him. I would have killed you if it got onto me, so I feel like he has a point." 

"Ya don't get it, Omi! It's not that but the fact that it keeps happening and piling up again and again. I think he hates me. And I also think that he's always on edge like maybe he should chill for a bit and not lash out at the tiniest inconveniences and...oh my god." Atsumu's eyes widened as he came to a realization that only he could see.

"What?" Sakusa sighed, but Atsumu decided to ignore the bored and exasperated undertone that his boyfriend always slid into when he indulged him in his rants, because he had an epiphany and Omi would soon understand that. "I know why he antagonizes me, Omi. It's because of you." 

"Okay, what the everloving fuck are you even talking about?" Sakusa interrupted him gruffly as he sat down on his bed and faced him. "I just did my skincare routine, so don't ruin my work. Please don't make me get early wrinkles because I have to frown at each of your antics."

Atsumu chuckled at that and continued, "Don't worry, Omi. I'll love you no matter how wrinkly and frowny you get. But look, he is single right? I am not. We are not. Maybe he doesn't even realize it, but look. The fact that he always lashes out and probably just has too much energy? I'm telling you, Yakkun hasn't been getting di-" 

"Think hard about how you finish that sentence."

"He hasn't been getting laid for a while, probably. He needs to relax and get this energy out of his system! Oh my god, Omi. Let's find him someone, so we are all getting the peace and rest we deserve!" 

Kiyoomi just blinked. Once, twice. Then he tilted his head a bit and caught Atsumu's eyes as if he was watching a particular interesting puzzle. Atsumu was used to that part of Sakusa, he sometimes just went into analytical mode and had to take a moment to consider the input, so he just waited patiently. Honestly, the fact that he looked like that while having fluffy bunny ears just made Atsumu love him more even though it was a total whiplash. A smile tugged on his face. The duality of his man.

"So...let me get this straight," Omi began, after taking several attempts to speak up, indicated through the opening and closing of his mouth. "You are annoyed by Yaku and think he has some issues, so you now decide to try to play a matchmaker for him, our libero, while we are at a training camp for the Olympics. And you want me to help you, because you think it might be good for the team's peace to let Yaku be preoccupied with someone, so he doesn't annoy you anymore. And you think we could find someone for Yaku. You know, the Yaku who has been living in Russia for I don't know how long. The one guy who strolled to our first team meeting in a tailored suit when he probably just got out of the airplane a bit earlier."

"Exactly," Atsumu nodded.

"No."

"Whyy?!"

"Are you even listening to yourself?! We are training. We are not in high school anymore, Tsumu. So, no. We are definitely not going to play matchmakers! And who do you even think would fit? Someone from the team? Do you want to distract someone else from the goal we are trying to achieve here?" 

Atsumu pouted as he answered, "It's exactly because we are adults, that we can do it! We are all professionals here, so there won't be any problem, I'm sure whatever we are doing off court won't be an issue! Have a bit of faith in our teammates here, Omi-Omi!"

As Sakusa just squinted his eyes at him, Atsumu's mind provided him with a plan and so he probed further. "What about Komo-kun?"

Omi perked up at that, back straightening just a little bit more, barely noticeable, but Atsumu knew how to read him and he knew he had his interest as he definitely had not expected the mention of his cousin. "What about Motoya?"

"He's been annoying ya, too, right? To be honest, both of them are. All the mentions of old embarrassing stories and his infamous blackmail album…" Honestly Atsumu thought that it was Rin’s bad influence that Komori got addicted to his phone, the both of them should never have met and them being teammates just spelled hell for everyone else. But Omi said that Komori always has been a menace, so who was he to deny that? Atsumu trailed off as he saw Omi's face change.

At first it seemed like he wanted to decline the idea, but then he stopped, eyes widening in a mid-thought realization. The offer was way too tempting. Sakusa imagined a world where Komori wouldn't get onto his nerves. A world where off court he was preoccupied with something else than giggling and gossiping about him, where Motoya wouldn't show embarrassing photos from his teenage years around. Where he could have a relaxed dinner without getting taunted. It was way too tempting. "If we get them together…"

"They are off of our tail." Atsumu finished with a wide grin as he stared in anticipation at Omi. "Seriously it shouldn't be that hard. They are both liberos, they are rooming together and they are getting along fairly well. We are just going to give them a little push in the right direction." 

For a second Omi didn't react, but then a little smug smirk sneaked onto his face as he looked at him. God, Atsumu wanted to kiss that expression of him.  
"Alright. What's your plan, Tsumu?" 

"Glad that ya ask, Omi-Omi. Glad that ya ask. I'm going to tell you later, but first, let me give ya a kiss." A soft smile spread onto Omi's face as Atsumu sat down beside him and finally showered him with love.

*

Atsumu had given himself the task of observing Yaku while Kiyoomi would try to probe his cousin, so the next day Atsumu did exactly that.  
He had kept track of Yaku when he could and maybe Atsumu was deluding himself, but he would bet at least his next bleach that Yaku on the other hand seemed to watch Komori.

Atsumu wasn’t sure when it exactly began but something definitely had seemed to change in Yaku, because most of the time, when he looked over to him, Yaku’s gaze was already tracing after Komori. Maybe this whole matchmaker thing would be way easier than he expected, because Yaku was already interested in the other libero?  
However he couldn’t be too sure. Sometimes it seemed like Yaku was downright glaring at Komori like...what was wrong with him? What happened between them? Atsumu could have sworn that they were getting along, but on the other hand, Yaku was kind of often having some intense, scrutinizing gaze. Hyakuzawa had been right when he said that Yaku can look like he was two seconds away from murder, Atsumu had been at the end of it a few times already. With the way he so easily was able to shoot arrows from his eyes, it probably wasn’t something special for him to look at Komori like that. Atsumu however would keep a bit of a closer tab on him.

*

This was getting ridiculous.  
Yaku prided himself to have a very realistic outlook. He was not a green behind the ears naive kid nor was he innocent. He never had been, but even if he had any naivety left, it would have been sucked out of him after moving to Russia. It may be the culture shock, it may be the rough and very clear way people and especially his teammates voiced their thoughts. Whatever it was, it had been humbling to see that people had been like him. Not caring much about how they voiced their thoughts if the forwarded meaning was easy to see. No sugarcoating of words, even if it came out rough. Call it tough love or whatever.  
Fact of the matter was that Yaku was not naive and very straight forward with what he wanted and very in tune with his own feelings. So he knew exactly what was happening right now.  
He was beginning to develop a crush.

As Yaku watched Komori play in a 3vs3 he couldn’t help but glare at him. How did he end up here? It wasn’t fair. If it was any other person, he would just straight up go up to him, tell his feelings and/or seduce him to get what he wanted.  
This was how he did things. No hidden message, only the cold bare truth.  
This was not how he could do it this time.

Komori was a teammate. Yaku had promised himself to never get into an intimate relationship with teammates and this was his teammate for the OLYMPICS. This wasn’t just any stage, it was the world stage. He represented his country and he wasn’t about to let a stupid crush ruin any of it. He would keep quiet about this. It wasn’t a problem.

But god damn it, why did Komori have to be...so like he was? He really had made it way too easy for him to get interested. It had begun with just a spark of curiosity about him, but he had begun to notice too many things. Things a simple teammate and friend shouldn’t notice. Yaku knew that. The fact that they were getting along really well didn’t help, because Komori was just so easy to be around with. Yaku wasn’t going to spout some big poetry, but he would be lying if he denied Komori’s ability to light up the mood of a room just by his presence. And it wasn’t even like Komori was pure sunshine and innocent bliss. That would be boring. No, Yaku knew that Komori was a sly dog. He could smile into your face like an angel, but plan the apocalypse or more likely the humiliation and drama he could stir. Honestly, nobody could fault Yaku for at least getting interested. But this was only the beginning of a crush. Just the mere interest of what could be. It should be easy enough to squash that interest in its root. Yaku was in tune with his feelings. He was not naive enough to hope that this crush would be his great love or even more than a fleeting thought.

*

Okay, so maybe Atsumu was wrong. But honestly it was kind of obvious how much Yaku looked at Komori. This called for a change of plans. Maybe he should just plant the first seed and talk to Yaku about it. Let him know. There wasn't enough time to inform Omi about it, he had to act right now. A smirk settled onto his face as he approached the libero on the bench. Half of the team was currently on the court playing 3v3 while the rest of them were settled around and were closely watching. And coincidentally Yaku's gaze was drifting all too often to Komori.  
Finding that the others were far away enough to not hear anything and were too engaged into the match anyways, Atsumu plopped down next to Yaku. He couldn't keep the teasing tone out of his words though.  
"Ohhh? So ya have yer eyes set on dear Komo-kun? What would his cousin say 'bout that, I wonder?" 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sakusa likes to think he has the brain cell in this relationship and mostly he does, but don’t be fooled. They are both idiots and they are enablers. Just push the right button and they both lose the ability to think. They do share one single braincell after all.  
> I also may have projected onto Yaku when the poster made him interested in Komori and their differences, leave me alone. Oh, and if you don't know which poster I'm talking about, it's [this](https://twitter.com/joeyyytt/status/1283104461917876226) one.  
> But now that the groundwork is laid out...let the fun begin. :)
> 
> Again, thanks for reading. Leave a comment if you’d like, or talk to me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Nicini02). <3


	3. Chapter 3

What the fuck.  
What the everloving fuck.  
Yaku’s first instinct on hearing these words was turning around and pushing Miya from the bench, maybe kicking him when he was on the floor for good measure. Then he wanted to ignore him. Just pretend like he didn’t hear those words that sadly were the truth but honestly how the fuck did Miya Atsumu of all people found out about it? For a moment there was an eerie silence between them as he did nothing of the sorts, and instead only turned his head to the setter, who immediately flinched and almost fell from the bench as a result. Good.

Yaku knew that he could look very intimidating despite his vertically challenged body. Normally people would say he had a little bit of a baby face, being on the side of false ticketing for one too many times made him realize, yeah, okay maybe he did have a babyface. However it could change in a matter of seconds into his opponents worst nightmare. At least that’s what he hoped and what his teammates had reassured him so he did know how to look intimidating. This time he didn’t even have to try hard, he could almost imagine his face turning sour, a heated glare thrown at Miya. 

After the initial shock of getting a Yaku Deathstare Exclusive, the smirk went back onto Miya’s face and goddamn it, Yaku wanted to punch him. He wouldn’t, because he was a professional. He was a professional and he was not going to get violent against his teammates and leave a broken nose behind, no. His fist itched for a moment, but no. Yaku had great self-control, thank you very much. 

“Yer not even denying it? Interesting, Yakkun.” Miya just grinned wider and his eyes screamed pure mocking mirth and the desire for chaos. Yaku would be all for it, if he wouldn’t be at the receiving end. 

“You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you otherwise,” Yaku sighed and narrowed his eyes. How to proceed? He could deny it of course, but Yaku didn’t see the point in doing so.  
“You better not tell anyone about it, or I’ll kill you.”

“So violent.” 

Yaku just rolled his eyes, before continuing to watch the match. “So? How did you find out?” 

“Oh please.” Miya had the audacity to huff. “You weren’t even hiding it. Saw ya staring at him pretty much every time I looked at ya.” 

And exactly how many times had Miya looked at him to know that? Yaku wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer to it. “Well, whatever. It can hardly be even called a crush. He’s interesting. That’s all. Don’t worry, it won’t affect the team, so you can shut your mouth about it or you’ll regret it.”

“Aww, Yakkun. Why do you have to be so threatening?” Yaku just glared as an answer. “Damn, okay, okay. Well, I’m curious. Why not try something?”

“Excuse me?” 

“What? I mean, why don’t ya make a move or something?” Miya shrugged his shoulders as he continued, “You are even rooming together. Ain’t there enough opportunities?”

Yaku actually stared at him in surprise. “Are you serious? I am NOT going to try to seduce your boyfriend’s cousin.”

“I don’t think he would mind. Either of them actually.” The smirk came back on his face again. “Or what? Are you afraid he’ll say no? I mean, I guess it’s understandable, you are pretty insufferable and violent.” 

Alright, that was enough. Yaku turned a bit and then quickly placed a well aimed kick at Miya’s shin. The angle wasn’t ideal and he was sitting, so it didn’t pack the punch he’d like it to have, but the slight wheeze out of Miya’s mouth was satisfying to hear. “You had it coming. Don’t you dare complain now,” Yaku gritted out of his teeth.

“Yer only proving me right, you do know that, right?” Miya just answered and rubbed the aching spot on his leg. “But you haven’t answered my question. What are you afraid of? Didn’t peck ya for a coward.”

Honestly, Yaku was tempted to kick him again, but instead pinched his brows for a moment before answering, “I am not afraid. I have my reasons for not doing anything. Leave me alone.” 

“Ohhh no. No, I’m not leaving you alone. Just tell me or I’ll go straight to Komo-kun.” 

“I seriously hate you. Also isn’t it obvious? I’m not going to pursue anything. He’s a friend and most importantly, he’s a teammate.”

Miya just raised a brow and stared at him as if he was dumb and...okay. Yaku maybe shouldn’t say this to the one person who actually was together with his teammate. Goddamnit. Why did it have to be Miya who found out? 

“Don’t look at me like that. Whatever is going on between you and Sakusa is obviously not what’s between Komori and me.”

That made Atsumu stare at him in disbelief. “Whatever is goin on-? Help, we are in a relationship. It’s love. And you just admitted to having a crush on Komo-kun. What the hell?”

“Yeah okay. But you’re already together. I am not going to disrupt our team balance by going for some stupid crush. We are here to WIN this thing, Miya. And I won’t let anything or anyone get in between that and you shouldn’t either. So stop bothering me. I’m serious.”  
Miya stared at him and he just stared back. Yaku was not going to back down from this, it was the truth after all. Where did Miya even come from to just randomly sit down next to him and say something like that?

“I’m serious, too. Do you think I came here to lose? I’m not.” Miya clicked his tongue as he glared right back. “I just think that we are all professional enough to know the difference between on and off court relationships. Well, whatever. Do what you want, ‘m not gonna tell Komori, if that’s what yer worried about. Now, let’s play some volleyball.” If his tone was more aggressive than before, Yaku wouldn’t tell a soul.

And if on cue the match before their eyes ended and Yaku and Miya turned away from each other that was only a coincidence.

*

“Omi-kun, I literally told you, Yakkun likes him! I knew it. But goddamn, he was so stubborn about it. He was all ohh no, I’m such a coward, I’m going to ignore my feelings and will instead pick a fight with Atsumu who just wanted to push me to do something about it. Why is he like that? He also insulted us again. AND admitted to hating me. I told you I wasn’t imagining it. Omi-kun, he’s so stupid. Stupid Yakkun!”

Atsumu ranted to Omi, again after their practice to tell him the news about what he found out. But this was okay. Yaku might be stubborn but Atsumu was too. Omi and him would get their liberos together and if that was the last thing they’d do out of this training camp.

“Hm.” Omi-kun scrunched his face in thought as he listened to him. “I can kind of see where Yaku’s coming from. We ARE here to win.”

“Yes! And what’s stopping him from also winning in his love life?”

Kiyoomi just shrugged his shoulders. “By the way, I talked to Motoya, but I couldn’t quite guess what he thought about Yaku. I’m pretty sure he likes him though. Told me that he’s an amazing roommate, while simultaneously insulting me and saying that it is way better than rooming with me. But Motoya likes everyone. He’s like that. However, I guess, if we push the right buttons, we can get them together if what you say is true.”

“See? I swear, both of them are out to get us. They are awful. But hey, we are going to have some team bonding night today, right? We should just see if we can get some more situations going.”

Omi-kun just nodded to his words. This should be fine.

*

“Alright everyone!! We are having a game night for some team building,” Aran declared loudly as all of them were gathering in a meeting room, sitting around a huge table, with varying degrees of excitement.  
Bokkun hooted loudly next to Aran, who already gave a stressed smile. Bless him for keeping up with Bokkun. Atsumu had roomed a few times with the outside hitter and it was always fun, but sometimes Bokkun was a bit much. 120 percent or zero, there was no in between and it seemed like the former was the case right now, as the owlish spiker called out, “Let’s gooo! I want to play Uno! Are we playing Uno?”

“Yes! It will be fun! Just like old times in training camps, right? Right? C’mon Kageyama, I’m going to win against you!” Shoyuou immediately chimed up and lit a fire in Tobio’s eyes. Honestly, nobody bat an eye to the both of them anymore. They were just like that, Atsumu wasn’t even going to try to understand.

“You wish, It’s going to be my 1308th win.” Aaaand that was when Atsumu clunked out of the conversation.

“Well, it’s going to be BOTH of your losses, because I’M GOING TO WIN!” Hoshiumi declared while leaning forward on his seat and grinning widely at them.

Hakuba actually began laughing out loud. “Ohhh, Korai, are you sure about that?” A mocking grin settled on his face as he stated, “I mean, I do remember all of our old Kamomedai training camps. Weren’t you losing more often than not, particularly at Uno?” 

“That was ONLY because Sachiro and Baya-san ALWAYS GOT THE PLUS FOUR CARD. THEY TOTALLY CHEATED AND YOU KNOW IT. And you have no room to talk, Mr. Why do I always only have the color that isn’t played!” 

“Oh god. This is a disaster.” Omi-kun just paled next to him.

“Are we sure about playing Uno? I thought this was supposed to be team bonding, not teamfighting.” Hyakuzawa looked like he had war flashbacks as he stared at the chaos unfolding before him and Aran and Omi just nodded to that. 

“Are you kidding me? This is perfect. We are all competitive athletes, of course this is the best idea ever.” Yakkun grinned as he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms in front of him. There was a slight demonic aura emanating from him, obviously excited about the bloodbath he might be witnessing, but maybe Atsumu’s view was a little bit jarred. And on the left to Yakkun, Komori was smiling brightly in contrast. If this was a shojo manga, there’d probably be flowers sprouting all around from him.

“Yeah, I think it’s going to be fun!” These two surely couldn’t be more different than that. For a moment Atsumu was considering that putting them together might not be the best of ideas, but he quickly dismissed the thought. This was fine.

“Alriiight, so it seems like we all agree on Uno?” Atsumu drawled and although there was some uncertainty, the majority was all in for it and so they put together three stacks of Uno cards and began playing. 

They should have known that it was going to end in utter chaos.

*

“Okay, but HOW exactly did Ushijima win again? This doesn’t make any sense!”

Ushijima looked everyone in the eye, and then with the voice of someone who was going to pass down some great wisdom, he simply stated, “I got lucky.”

“HUUUUH?” Hoshiumi squinted his eyes at his former teammate and threw his cards onto the desk. 

“I told you. I literally told you that this was going to end in a disaster, but did anyone listen to me? NO, of course not!” 

“Congratulations, you all broke Hyakuzawa.” Omi stated deadpan.

How did they exactly end up here? Well, it had started the moment Aran distributed the cards and really had wanted to start by dealing to himself first. It was common knowledge that you deal to the person next to you first and end it by yourself, so Atsumu had not been above calling Aran out for it and thus a great debate began on why it should matter, prompting everyone to call out their opinions into the room. There might have been some name calling and threats going on but at the end of it, Ushijima had just picked off the cards out of Aran’s hand and distributed them. Nobody had quite noticed until they were dealt, so that was that.

It had been a bloodbath. Uno was a game where you just had to put down a card that matched either the color or the number of the playing stack. You could play one card when it was your turn or take a card from the deck if you couldn’t and the first one who got rid of all his cards was the winner. It was easy enough, right? WRONG. Kageyama, Hakuba and Yaku almost got into an all out brawl to decide on some house rules. Bokuto had been egging them on. Hinata had taken Kageyama’s side which was in and of itself a feat, but they did go to highschool together so they probably had established rules. Komori had taken out his goddamn phone and had filmed a few seconds of the argument, then flipped the camera and gave a peace sign, before posting that video on Twitter with the caption: “So? What are your rules for Uno? Comment down below.”

It surely was a ride. After deciding on the rules, the real fun had started. Uno was a friendship ending game as it was, but now add twelve competitive athletes into the mix and you’d get the following picture: Shouts of affrontation whenever someone was getting skipped. The emotional outcries when someone changed the color right in front of someone else. Getting a turn around card right when someone was about to finish, only to not get their turn. Having to take cards from the stack only for them to also not fit the criteria. Special mentions go out to Bokkun, who had almost slipped into an emo-mode which Atsumu frankly hadn’t witnessed since high school days and wasn’t eager to see again. However, it seemed like that fun “bonding” game had thrown all of them back into the mindsets of not adults, about to represent their country on the largest world stage the sport had to offer, but of high school kids at a training camp, eager to one up each other. And then not to mention the worst of it all. The draw 2 and 4 cards...and the subsequent addition of them because of course they had to play with the stacking up of these devilish cards which led to more than one occasion of someone having to draw more than 10 cards.  
Honestly, at the end of it all, Yaku hadn’t been the only one with the ability of glaring like a psychotic murderer seconds away from pulling off the limbs of his victims. It was honestly a miraculous wonder that no one had actually started a brawl and they actually were able to finish three games. And that’s where they were now.

“Oh please, don’t act so innocent, Kiyoomi. YOU were the one who added that last draw 4.” 

Omi-kuns left eyebrow twitched. “That’s because you were targeting me, Motoya.” 

“WE ARE NOT GOING TO FIGHT AGAIN! STOP IT!” Hyakuzawa suddenly screamed as the chitter began to start again and okay, yeah. That shut everyone up. It seemed like this game was bringing out the most feral out of everyone. As Atsumu stared at the middle blocker with shocked wide eyes, like everyone else except Yaku, who looked positively delighted and as if this was the best day of his life, Aran cleared his throat before continuing.

“Yeah. I think we’re gonna ban Uno. That game‘s not gonna be played anymore with all of us here.”

“Aww, but it was so fun.” Shouyou mumbled and Atsumu was really inclined to disagree and snipe at him, because he very vividly remembered the creepy stare Shouyou had given him after he had changed the color and no, he had looked miles away from having fun, but as Atsumu opened his mouth, Aran shot him a deadly glare and he shut it. Maybe not now.

“Well, how about we play another game? Something that would be more cooling down? And maybe in teams.”

They all collectively turned their heads to the pile of board games on the floor next to the door until Hinata spoke up, “Jenga?”. And that was that.

*

Yaku looked at the building tower of blocks as if it had personally offended him and honestly it kind of did. They had first wanted to make teams of two out of their rooming but then Aran had interjected that if they still didn’t get along with their roommates, then their team was doomed and honestly, Yaku had to agree. So instead of teaming up with Komori for this game they just randomly wrote down every name on a piece of paper, tossed these into a little dice cup they found, shook it and then took out two papers at a time. It was kind of a bit of a miracle that none of the teams had been roommates, but it worked out.

And because all of them were competitive little shits they just HAD to make this whole thing a bit more exciting. So they decided that the winning team could make the losing team post a picture of their choice on social media as long as it wouldn’t cause some kind of scandal. 

And here Yaku was now, staring this tower down and really carefully trying to find a brick that looked like it wouldn’t bring the tower out of balance while Hoshiumi bounced up and down next to him, before grabbing his arm in excitement to point at one somewhere in the middle. “Take this one, Yaku-san!! And be careful!!”

“I know.” Yaku just grit out between his teeth and then took a deep breath before carefully moving his hand to push the brick out and put it on top. He exhaled. Another round where they were safe. “NICE JOB, YAKU!” Hoshiumi raised a hand to high five him and then both of them looked to Kageyama and Hakuba who talked quietly to think about their next turn. 

In honesty, it was kind of dumb to play this game in teams, but they had agreed to do it and with twelve of them it was kind of difficult to find something, so now every team had to take turns with their players to push out the bricks. 

“How long are ya still gonna take, Tobio-kun?” Miya drawled as Kageyama pushed the block out with the speed of like 10 seconds per millimeter. Yaku kinda had to agree with Miya there. 

“Bokkuns getting a bit impatient.” and truly, that owl boy looked way too eager for his next turn. It was funny, Miya and Bokuto were the only team that actually were pretty close, so it was no wonder that their strategy to this point was to just go for it and hope for the best, not many words needed. It worked, somehow. 

It was interesting to see the parallel of them to Ushijima and Hyakuzawa. Both of them were kind of a bit clumsy and actually really randomly took out bricks. Yaku wasn't sure if their lack of words was because they understood and trusted each other with the right decision or if they actually just didn't care at all. 

Well, they were lucky at least, because their team did not have to play immediately after the two banes of Yaku’s existence. 

At the beginning Yaku was just raising his brow when Sakusa had pushed Aran to take out one of the outer blocks of the second last row from the bottom right before it had been Yaku’s turn. Normally people would try to stabilize the base by pushing out the middle of the three blocks but whatever. The next turn, Sakusa had taken out the other side, leaving the base with only one block to stand on, and everyone began to understand his strategy. Sakusa wanted to unstabilize the tower as much as possible, so that everyone else had to struggle. 

And if that wasn’t enough, Komori had caught on, shouting an “Oh, so that’s how you want to play, huh?!” and began doing the same and because Hinata was easily impressed, Komori had egged him on to follow after. In the flow of the game, Komori and Sakusa had actually told everyone the story behind it. As it seemed, the both of them had played Jenga a lot as kids with their cousins and siblings at family gatherings and had developed this strategy to mess with everyone else and the worst part was that the result of this was that they actually could pull off destabilizing the tower without tumbling it down.

And that was where the current problem lied. Because of course after Ushijima’s turn it was Komori’s and immediately after Sakusa’s. So the two absolute demons of this game could have their fun, only to leave Hoshiumi and him devastated, because it was the former's turn after. 

“Uhm, Yaku-san?” 

“Yes?”

“Which block should I pull out?”

Yaku sighed and pinched his nose as he stared at the very unsteady tower, already lopsided, filled with holes and standing on a very unstable base. Honestly, the lightest touch could make it fall. 

“I don’t know.”

“Well...this sucks.”

The suffering of their team made everyone else laugh and honestly looking at the disaster that was in front of them, Yaku couldn’t even fault them for it.

“I don’t think it makes much of a difference, just...pick one randomly and hope for the best. And be careful!”

Hoshiumi just leaned very close to the tower at those words, eyes squinted and then declared, “I’m going to do this!!! JUST WATCH ME!”

They watched.

They watched as the tower fell the moment Hoshiumi just lightly touched a block, the sound of their clashing against each other on their way to the table ringing in their ears. 

“Fuck.” Hoshiumi and him exhaled at the same time, not realizing that they had held their breaths before.

*

“Honestly at this point I’m just rooting for Ushijima and Hyakuzawa or Sakusa and Aran, because these teams are the only ones who are not going to make us post something embarrassing.” Yaku mumbled to Hoshiumi, as he went back into the room after he left to get something to drink. Yaku then pushed wordlessly a bottle of milk tea in front of Hoshiumi, before sitting down and opening up his own.

Hoshiumi’s gaze immediately latched onto the drink and then seemed to perk up at it, which made Yaku smile. “Thanks, Yaku-san!” he said, before thinking about Yaku’s words and scrunching up his face. “But no. Sakusa was so annoying with his plays, he doesn’t deserve a win.”

Laughter bubbled up in Yaku as he just nodded and looked back to the table. Hoshiumi and him were sitting at the far end as Hoshiumi had sulked for a bit and they were now just watching the chaos in front of them.

Kageyama and Hakuba had been the next people to lose and the later one had immediately begun bickering with Hoshiumi again and Kageyama had just laser focused on the game or probably Hinata. Soon after Ushijima and Hyakuzawa followed to join their sulking round, bringing a bit of peace and tranquility with them. 

“Damn. I really had hoped you’d win this.” Yaku greeted them and scooted a bit over to make room. 

“I guess I put a bit too much power in pushing that last one.” Ushijima simply stated, looking over at Hyakuzawa who just shrugged. “It’s okay. Honestly I’m just glad that this game is a lot more civil than Uno.” A shudder visibly went down Hyakuzawa’s shoulders as he seemingly thought about the first hour of this night. Laughter bubbled up in Yaku as he clapped him onto his back. 

“I don’t know. It was really funny to see you lose your cool for once.” 

Hyakuzawa just looked down at him with the most done look he’d witnessed to date on his face and raised a brow. “Well, I could live with a little less murder gaze from you.” Yaku just smiled innocently, “Why? It works,” and then looked back to the game again. In all honesty though, Hyakuzawa was right. When Uno was all heated glares and destroyed nerves, Jenga was the concentrated and strategizing coldness. Watching some of them play did make Yaku remember that all of them were athletes who all were absolutely able to focus on a task set before them.

“Who do you think will win?” Yaku asked, watching the tower get more and more unstable.

“Kiyoomi. He absolutely has the necessary means to do so.” Ushijima started, “And Aran is also really calm. They probably will take this one.” Kiyoomi? Yaku didn’t know that Ushijima and him were that close, funny how many new things you could learn from this activity.

Yaku just nodded to that. “Yeah, I’m kinda hoping for them, too.” And that was mostly because he didn’t want to get humiliated by having to post some stupid picture, but that was only for him to know.

“Yaku! I’m telling you, we are not rooting for Sakusa!” Hoshiumi suddenly piped up again, somehow having caught that last bit of conversation. 

“Did you forget that we were the ones who LOST? Do you want our roommates to choose the pictures? Goddamn, who knows they might have one of us sleeping. Or even worse, do you want Miya and Bokuto to choose what happens with us? No, I’m telling you. Sakusa’s team is our safest bet right now.” 

Hoshiumi stared at him for a bit before huffing out, “Fine.”

However, the moment Sakusa's team lost two turns later because he had been a little bit too risky was the moment Yaku had enough. Before the last game between Miya-Bokuto and Komori-Hinata began, he stood up, grabbed Hoshiumi and more or less pushed him in Hinata's direction. Hoshiumi had widened his eyes for a moment or maybe that was just his normal expression, but immediately had understood and talked to Hinata, while Yaku stomped to Komori.

Not caring a bit about what it looked like, he grabbed Komori's t-shirt collar, and pulled him down to his eye level in a rough way.  
"Ehh-?" Komori squealed out, but Yaku ignored it, and just leaned further into his face, until only a few inches were between them. 

Yaku made sure to catch Komori's eyes as he insisted, "Komori Motoya. You NEED to win this next game, okay? You absolutely cannot let Miya and Bokuto win this. Do whatever the fuck needs to be done to ensure victory. I am putting my trust into you right now. Can you do that for me?" Yaku knew that he could look and be very intimidating and his gaze was unwavering as he looked into Komori's blue eyes, pupils widening at his words. There was a moment of silence as the light hit at the right angle, making the small grey hue in the blue of Komori's eyes sparkle as they both just stared at each other. Komori blinked and suddenly Yaku became very aware of the fact how close he got to him, his hand still holding onto Komori's collar. As if burned, Yaku immediately let go of it, stepped back a bit and tried to repress the incoming blush he could almost feel. 

"Ahem-" Komori cleared his throat which made Yaku look at him again. "Don't worry, Yaku. I promise I'll do my best." And then Komori had the nerve to give him the most reassuring and blinding smile ever which made Yaku almost, really almost, miss the very light blush that also grazed Komori's cheeks. He wasn't sure if it was his imagination or a trick of light or actually real, but he just nodded, patted him reassuringly on his shoulders and turned to get back to his seat. 

However, for a second he caught Miya's eyes and the knowing smirk told Yaku that he had truly messed up.

The thing about Bokuto and Miya was that nobody really understood how they ended up in the final round of Jenga. It probably was luck or maybe karma's way of apologizing for their lack of brain cells because there was just not a logical explanation in Yaku's honest opinion. The both of them just bullshitted through and made the tower waver more often than not, but somehow it never fell. And that was making him nervous. Hoshiumi had already started grabbing his arm every time it was either Hinata's or Komori's turn, because both of them were the last people to be their saviors. It might have hurt if Yaku wasn’t used to get bruises on his arms with all the receiving he did, so he just let Hoshiumi clutch his arm.

Yaku just knew that if Miya won he would make Yaku find the most unpleasurable and annoying photo to post. He knew that Miya kind of had a problem with him and maybe that was why Yaku got so easily irritated with him, fighting fire with fire was how he operated after all, but Miya didn't make it difficult. He was a grade A asshole and jerk, self centered and arrogant. It irked Yaku. Add to it the fact that he knew about Yaku's tiny little crush, there was absolutely no way that this punishment wouldn't end in disaster for Yaku. And Bokuto...well, Yaku couldn't count on him to be much of a buffer. Bokuto had always been up for some chaos, especially when putting him together with people like Kuroo. Yaku still shuddered over the shit he had to witness in high school training camps. Hey, when he thought about it...Miya probably was a bit like Kuroo, so yeah. No. He doesn't want that.

Yaku's eyes wandered over to Hinata and Komori again. If he was honest, he actually wouldn't put it past Komori to also want to use an embarrassing photo. The other libero had a knack for setting chaos to the world and it probably would also make his blackmail album. Yaku had seen some of the stuff and it was absolutely hilarious and he probably wouldn't be spared to also be put in. But...Komori was also his roommate and as such he surely wanted to sleep well and not fear for his life so he surely would reign it in. They just had to win.

Komori and Hinata did in fact not win.

At the end it was Hinata's turn that made the tower fall, but really it could have been anyone for the last four rounds. Yaku couldn't fault anyone for it, well, except for those stupid idiots Miya and Bokuto, who were hooting and celebrating their victory and Hoshiumi and him just shared a look, knowing that this was going to be a long night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You don’t know true fear if you’ve never played Jenga with people who push out the most instabilizing blocks and can actually pull it off. Leaving you with devastation on what to do next. Yes, I speak from experience.
> 
> Also a very huge thank you to [Minty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/feints/pseuds/suganii) for always hyping me up and not batting an eye when I ask her random questions such as “Who do you think in Kamomedai would most likely cheat in Uno?”. Credits for that answer go to her. Also a very HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, MINTY! You are so appreciated and I hope you like the Hoshiumi content in this chapter <3
> 
> I'm also not sure if I'm ever going to offhandedly mention in this fic who's rooming with who, but I had the roomplan since the beginning of the fic so if anyone's interested: Yaku-Komori, Sakusa-Atsumu, Kageyama-Ushijima, Hinata-Hoshiumi, Gao-Hyakuzawa, Aran-Bokuto.
> 
> Talk to me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/nicini02) if you want!


	4. Chapter 4

“Honestly, fuck tall people,” Yaku sighed loudly as he sat down at the breakfast table Hoshiumi, Hinata and Komori were currently occupying. Yaku had taken his sweet time this morning, dragging himself a bit, so his roommate had been going first. Yaku had grumpily made himself ready, waited a bit longer at the line of the cafeteria than necessary and then with his tray in hand he had searched for the one person who’d understand him, Hoshiumi, and so he went to his table straight in a beeline, without a thought to spare.

“I mean, I’m down if you want.” Wait, what? Not expecting an answer from someone other than Hoshiumi, who he’d actually had addressed, Yaku’s gaze whirled to Komori who just grinned cheekily at him and...winked? 

“What.” Did he just hear that correctly? Did Komori just flirt with him? What on earth? Yaku could almost feel the blush creeping up on him as he stared wide-eyed at the other libero.  
Komori tilted his head for a second, blinked and then burst into laughter. “Jeez, I’m just kidding. Cheer up a bit, okay? What happened last night wasn’t that bad.” 

Yaku would beg to differ. “That’s because you didn’t have to bear the brunt of it.” He instead grumbled and began to eat, before his eyes caught Hoshiumi whose gaze switched between Komori and him with a smirk. Oh no. “Back me up here, Hoshiumi.” Yaku said to divert the outside hitters attention and somehow it even worked.

"YES! I do not want to check my social media after that meme! Stupid tall people, I'm going to spike Miya and Bokuto into their faces today. And Gao. Especially Gao."

"Aww, don't worry Hoshiumi! I told you that our fans all just had good things to say. It was really funny!" Hinata chimed up.

"Well, tell that to my teammates in Russia, Chibi-chan! Because my phone has been blowing up with messages since the moment it went online. I will never live that down. This humiliation is going to haunt me forever." As if one cue, his phone that sat on the table vibrated again with a new message. Yaku bit down a bit more aggressively at his food before checking it and oh. Great. It was the old Nekoma group chat. Fuck you, Kuroo. Yaku left him on read. 

"Hey, Boke! Can you-"

"NOT TODAY, KAGEYAMA!" Hoshiumi exclaimed and glared at the setter. "Go sit somewhere else, Hinata stays with us for today's breakfast."

"Jeez. Are our midget five footer’s grumpy again?” Gao laughed loudly as he slung an arm around Kageyama and grinned down at them. Yaku’s mood didn’t get better and he just glared at them both. “Let’s leave them alone for now.” 

Yaku had to grudgingly admit that the game night did kind of make bonds, seeing as Kageyama didn’t shrug him off and just nodded after throwing an asking glance at Hinata who just answered, “Don’t worry. We’re going to talk later, ‘kay, Kageyama?” And then they were gone.

“I really can’t believe that Gao was even right with me being a five footer too. I was so close to hitting the 6 foot mark and then poof. Hope vanished. Gone are the simpler days of youth when for a short amount of time I was taller than Kiyoomi.” Komori suddenly mused with one cheek puffed out in dislike. Yaku would have found the expression pretty cute and it really was, if only Komori’s words weren’t what any of them wanted to hear right now. For a moment silence spread out as the three of them stared at him in disbelief until Yaku broke the quiet. “You should be glad that I like you, because for that comment alone I should have kicked you.” 

“Wha-”

“Exactly. You should have been yeeted from our table if you crossed that mark. You are barely tolerated right now, Komori.” Hoshiumi pointedly remarked.

“Yeah. You were always tall. Please don’t try to get pity from us right now. Short kings rise up!”

“Ayeeee!” Hoshiumi and Yaku exclaimed after Hinata’s words before laughing.

Komori just chuckled at them. "Well, okay. Sorry. But anyway, is it really that bad, Yaku? What are they saying?"

Yaku was sighing and then unlocked his phone, opened a chat and slid the phone into the middle of the table for everyone else to see. Seriously, Yaku should have known that the mix of Bokuto and Miya would only lead to chaos and dumbassness, but what he didn't expect was the punishment Yaku and Hoshiumi had to experience. Honestly, it was only a photo. Or...two for that matter.

After Miya and Bokuto had won, the both of them had gone into a corner of the room to discuss what they wanted from Yaku and Hoshiumi and only the occasional fit of a giggle had pointed towards Yaku’s incoming doom. When they had come back, plan in hand, Miya had thrown him such a delightful and teasing grin that Yaku considered murder then and there. And then Bokuto had told them about their plan. Yaku and Hoshiumi had to recreate the “How to talk with short people” meme with two other players on their team and...well. The both of them may have lunged at the winners and had to be held back and maaaybe there was some high-pitched screeching and running around involved, but at the end of it they had to suffer through. 

Miya then had the audacity of looking Yaku straight into the eye and blab something about “Well, if they are so against it, how about Komori being one of the tall ones? They are friends, so it ain’t a problem, right?” It sounded conciliating, it sounded like an offering of peace. Yaku wanted to vomit.

He knew exactly what Miya was doing and the teasing glimmer didn’t make anything better and he had to wonder again why it had to be Miya who found out about his feelings. He should have been more careful. To his luck...or demise, Yaku still was undecided, the team had been against it and instead prompted to let Hakuba and Hyakuzawa do the honors. The tallest people on the team. Yeah, Yaku was not amused.

The only reason why Yaku hadn’t glared at Hyakuzawa when he crouched down annoyingly much to get on eyelevel with Yaku was because Hyakuzawa genuinely looked terrified and guiltily at him and Yaku...kind of took pity. Hyakuzawa was a nice teammate and Hyakuzawa was not at fault for being so tall and for getting roped into this humiliation and Yaku liked him enough and was thinking about their practice games and their building teamwork in the defense and so he actually had forced a smile on his face as the photo was taken.

Hoshiumi and Hakuba had been another matter. Hakuba had looked way too smug and way too amused when he stood in front of Hoshiumi, arms crossed in front of him as he was looking down and Hoshiumi who was forced to look up had focused years of suppression and teasing of his height into a single glare and looked much more unhinged than usual. 

Neither Hoshiumi nor Yaku had been amused about the whole deal and had bid adieu to the group as soon as the meme had been posted on each of their social media accounts.

“Uhm. Yaku-san? We don’t understand russian.” Hinata suddenly spoke up as he glanced at Yaku’s phone display and up at him again and oh. Oops. 

Laughter filled the table as Yaku just took back his phone and answered sheepishly, “Yeah. Right. Anyway, it’s mostly just teasing about the meme. And...promises of exclusively talking to me by crouching down the next time we see each other...and oh god. My reputation is gone.” 

Yaku wanted to bang his head on the table. He had worked so hard to not get reduced to his height in Russia and now this stupid meme where the bold word “Right” was written underneath his picture was on the internet for everyone to see. What if his opponents of other teams saw it? Oh god, of course they saw it. He was a short japanese olympic athlete playing in the Russian Super League, with some of the tallest players on this goddamn planet. He was absolutely going to get teased. If any other players were going to crouch down to talk to him when they met at a match, Yaku was absolutely going to murder them. Maybe break their spirits first in the game and then after murder them. How exactly did one get rid of a body? He’d find out, it’s okay.

Suddenly he felt a hand rubbing his back. “It’s okay, Yaku. No murdering people, please. It’s hard to hide a body.” Komori’s voice chimed up next to him and oops. Maybe he had glared at his plate and muttered, but whatever.

“Just...can we stop talking about this altogether? I hate it.” Yaku scrolled through Twitter and sighed. “We are still trending.”

“Goddamn it.” Hoshiumi narrowed his eyes and clicked his tongue, “We have to change it. Somehow. I refuse to be the talk of the team for the rest of the week.”

“You know…” Hinata mused and stared at his own phone, “If you want to stop trending, you just have to get something or someone else to trend. Make the people see something else and divert the attention, just like in volleyball.”

It was as if a big lightbulb lit up the entire table as the four smallest people of the team exchanged glances in a sudden burst of revelation.

“You know what? I think I have an idea.” Komori grinned at them in mischief and proved again why exactly he was allowed at their table.

*

“Oii, Yakkun! Wait up for a moment!”

Yaku and Aran both turned to see Miya running up to them. They were just in the hall on their way to their rooms and finished talking about some of the dumb antics their team had been doing today, when the bane of both of their existences called up to Yaku. 

Turning around, Yaku raised an eyebrow, before waving at Aran to keep going, he’d deal with Miya. Aran just smiled a bit with pity and mumbled, “Good luck with whatever he wants now,” before walking away fast. 

A sigh escaped Yaku and with arms akimbo he said, “What do you want, Miya?” 

“Aww, why are ya looking at me like that? Shouldn’t you be the one thanking me?” Miya grinned delightedly as he stared down at him.

“What?” 

“Oh, c’mon, don’t play dumb. Yer not subtle, just like with your crush on-”

Yaku interrupted him with a kick.

“Dammit, Yakkun! Could ya stop with your kicks already? They hurt!”

“Yeah, well, if you could stop talking about stuff you shouldn’t be talking about in the middle of the HALLWAY then maybe I could stop.”

“Jeez. Fine. I just wanted to talk to ya, okay?” Miya glared at him which Yaku only countered with an eye roll. Fine, if he wanted to talk, who was Yaku to disagree?

They walked to Yaku’s room because one, Komori had still been in the common room the last time Yaku had seen him and two, Yaku didn’t trust Miya to not slip up again.

“So? What is it?” Yaku sat down on his bed, while Miya grabbed a chair and sat down backwards on it, crossing his arms over the backrest of it, and resting his face on his arms, grinning mischievously at Yaku.

“It was your idea, wasn’t it?”

Yaku of course knew what Miya was talking about. It could only be about the photo Komori had posted and that had gone absolutely viral. 

“Actually, no. It wasn’t my idea. It was Hinata’s. Or actually Komori’s. Not that I disagreed on it though. I’m kinda surprised you were willing to let him post that.” 

Miya just hummed with a smile Yaku didn’t know what to make of. Yaku actually had been surprised, when Komori had told him that Miya and Sakusa had both been okay with him posting a picture he had somehow acquired at training. Honestly, Yaku had looked at Komori like he was some kind of deity, because Yaku really could not remember when that had happened nor when Komori had found the time to take a photo in the right angle.

The picture showed Miya kneeling on one knee, probably after tying his shoe and looking up with an absolutely smitten face at Sakusa who was mid-laugh. It was a cute picture and if Yaku wouldn’t have known better, he’d probably mistake it for some kind of proposal picture. Only the fact that both of them were in the middle of the gym, still in training gear and Kageyama and Ushijimi literally at the far background walking blurredly out of frame, made him believe that this was actually not a posed photo. Oh, and not to forget that not a single ring was to be seen.

Komori had posted the photo with the caption _“Atsumu, stop making my heart skip for making it look like we’re going to become family” challenge failed._

It had been no wonder that _#SakuAtsu_ , _NOT a Proposal_ , _no ring_ and _SakuAtsu Wedding when_ had been the top trends within minutes, especially after Miya had answered to the tweet with an “Oopsie :)”, making the little meme that Yaku had become absolutely irrelevant.

“Well, if you really want to know why, Omi doesn’t really care that much about social media and what everyone else thinks, so he was okay with it. And I just think it’s fun to mess with the fans a little bit, you know? Every PR is good PR. I was just surprised that Komori somehow got such a photo. I don’t even remember kneeling in front of Omi like that.” Miya scrunched his eyebrows a bit. 

Yaku stared at Miya before huffing out, “Huh.” Yaku was not going to lie, he wouldn’t have let Komori post that if he was in his shoes, but whatever.

“So? Do you have plans to propose any time soon? Because it seems kinda fishy to me that you are so okay with leading everyone on with a potential wedding.”

Miya blinked a few times at him, before laughing right into his face. “Ahhh, are ya jealous, Yakkun? Want to be invited to the wedding? Sorry, but you won’t get an invitation from me. But Komori is family, y’know? Ya probably could sneak in as a plus one if yer so eager, we can’t do anything against that.” 

Yaku just grabbed the pillow lying beside him and threw it in a fluid motion at Miya’s face, who reacted on instinct and….set it back to him? They both watched as the pillow flopped to the floor right in between them, because this was a pillow and it did not react the way a volleyball would. There was a moment of silence, before both of them burst out laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation. 

“You’re really a jerk, Miya.”

“I guess so.” Miya just shrugged and then grinned back at him. “Y’know? It’s not like I never thought about proposing to Omi. I do want to marry him, someday. Just not now. We have time, the rest of our lives in fact, so why the rush? Also we are at the peak of our careers now and we want to make names for ourselves first, thinking about changing names for the Olympics would be so annoying, or preparing for a wedding while we are still training? Nah, if there’s going to be a proposal it’s definitely going to be after, so we still have a few months left. But there’s also all the merch to be thinking of...maybe later than that. Oh, but playing in the V.League’s going to be so fun if Omi’s going to take my name. The commentators will probably stumble a few times, how are they going to call us then? By our numbers? Our given names? Just say Miya and hope for the best? Ohhh, there’s going to be two Miya’s on the court again, nice. Take that ‘Samu, you’re easily replaceable and Omi’s the better hitter anyway. Much to think about, so yeah. Proposal’s going to be later sometime, I don’t know. Omi’s probably thinking the same. I-”

“Yo, Miya. I didn’t ask for your lifestory, okay?” Yaku scrunched his eyebrows as he interrupted the rambling of the setter. “I just wanted to know if there’s going to be a proposal in the middle of the Olympics or not. It was a simple yes or no question, I don’t care about your relationship.” Though he had to admit, that it was kinda cute how much thought Miya put in, but honestly, Yaku couldn’t find it in himself to be bothered about it or simply put, he didn’t give a fuck.

“Wow, rude. Did anyone ever tell you that yer an asshole yerself, Yakkun? Because you are.” A grin spread out on Yaku’s face as he mimicked the shoulder shrug and answered, “I guess so.”

Suddenly Miya took out his phone and spent a few moments reading through a text, typing something himself and then reading something again.  
Then he looked up again with a cunning smile, heavy lidded eyes landing on Yaku, before pocketing his phone and speaking up, “I’ve been thinking about something.”

“You can think? Don’t hurt yourself,” Yaku just deadpanned.

Ignoring this, Miya just continued, “Y’know? There are ship names, right? Like how SakuAtsu is Omi’s and mine. And I just thought about what Komori’s and yours would be like and then I was like wait a minute. It could be MoriMori, because both of your names have that in them and it sounds fun. And if you decide to marry, it might even not have to be changed!” 

What. The. Fuck. “Miya…” Yaku was pinching the bridge of his nose, trying to calm himself down. Ah, on second thought though...fuck that. “LET IT GO, DAMMIT! WHAT’S-” 

Suddenly the door opened and Komori in all his glory walked in, when he stopped in the middle of the room, blinking a few times at Miya and then Yaku. “Uhm-?”

“Ahhh, I guess, I’ll go now. Omi-Omi is surely waiting for me. Byeee!” Faster than anyone could say anything, Miya jumped out from the chair and walked to the door, but suddenly stopped again. Hand still on the doorknob, Miya just turned his head a bit to say, “Oh. And Mori-kun?” 

“What?”  
“Huh?” 

Komori and Yaku both said at the same time and oh god, Yaku was not going to think about the implications of both of them reacting to the same name, but Miya just let his gaze wander back and forth between them, before smirking, “Good night.” And then he was gone.

*

“Uhm, so..who exactly was he talking to? That nickname was new,” Komori started the conversation, walked through the room, looked at the pillow on the floor and then picked it up to throw back at Yaku.

“I guess...the both of us? Not sure.” Yaku just faintly answered.

“Hmm,” Komori hummed for a moment, “I didn’t know you both were friends, to be honest. Gotta say, I’m also kinda hurt that he got to call you by your first name before I could. I thought we had a bond!” Komori pouted as he sat down on his bed and looked accusingly at Yaku. “Uh, you know...as fellow liberos and roommates,” He added.

“Miya and I are not friends and he doesn’t! That was the first time he called me...uh...or us like that! Also I never stopped you. You can call me Morisuke or Mori, if you want. I don’t really care about that. Most of my teammates in Russia call me by one or the other anyway. Not all of them though, because Yaku is just shorter and rolls off the tongue easy, but yeah. You have my permission, if you want.” 

Honestly, Yaku really didn’t care about who calls him what as long as it wasn’t some rude nickname, but somehow stating it out loud to Komori that he could call him by his given name felt...intimate. Shit, he really was too far gone. 

However, Komori perked up at that and smiled brightly at him and how could Yaku regret doing this when this was the expression he got to see? “Okay, Morisuke!” Komori immediately tested the name and then winked at him, “But then you call me Motoya, too!” 

Yaku just nodded. “Sure.”

“Okay, but seriously, why did Atsumu call you..umm- us, Mori? I mean, it’s not the first time I heard that nickname, so I naturally reacted, but I don’t think he ever said that to me. What did you two even talk about?” Motoya’s round eyebrows did their funny little thing where it wasn’t really clear if he wanted to scrunch or raise them, so they just kind of wiggled and Yaku had to suppress a laughter as his roommate tried to come up with an answer.

“Talked about the photo you posted. He probably wanted me to thank him….but I actually don’t think I did?” Yaku took a moment to mentally go over the conversation and nope. He really didn’t. Not that he would have, because at the end it had been Miya’s fault that Yaku even had trended in the first place.

“Oh and about the name…” Yaku pondered about letting the topic fall, but decided against it. “He kinda thought about the fact that SakuAtsu was trending and then...thought it would be fun if we’d be referred to as MoriMori. You know, because it’s in both of our names.”

“Ehhh?” Motoya bounced on his bed and straightened up as he looked at Yaku with wide eyes. “You mean, like a ship name?”

“...Yeah.”

“Huh.” Then a reluctant chuckle escaped Motoya as he pondered, “I think it’s a fun coincidence. Imagine us getting referred to as MoriMori instead of as the Japanese national team liberos. Man, that’d take out all of our intimidating aura, don’t you think?” 

Yaku kinda agreed and nodded, but was still confused about the sudden change of atmosphere. 

“Well, I’m going to make myself ready for bed. Hope you don’t mind me taking the bathroom first.” Motoya hopped up from his bed and then proceeded to just walk into their shared bathroom. The door closed with a click that sounded louder in Yaku’s ears than normal.

Okay, that was weird.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my agenda to spread the word that this ship should be called MoriMori. 
> 
> And if you think you’ve read about Hoshiumi and Yaku having to recreate the [How to talk to short people meme](https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1269323-how-to-talk-to-short-people) before, it may be because I wrote a small [twitter thread](https://twitter.com/Nicini02/status/1296578128656072706?s=20) on it for fun for the Hoshigaoweek a few months ago. I just found my idea from back then hilarious, so I just had to put it in this fic again although I tweaked it a bit.
> 
> & Fun fact: The whole game night chapter only was made because I wanted a scene where Yaku says Fuck Tall people, only for Komori to react to that. I'm really happy I did add it though.
> 
> Well, I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
> 
> Here’s my [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Nicini02/) if you want to talk!


	5. Chapter 5

Atsumu slammed the door to their room shut and then turned with a wide grin to his boyfriend. “We did it, Omi-Omi. We did it!”

With arms opened wide, he embraced Sakusa in a happy hug and smiled as Omi relaxed by leaning onto him. He was almost like a puppet, whose strings were cut and thus just fell into his arms with a content sigh. 

“Hey, you okay?” Atsumu murmured into his hair and rubbed gently at his back. Seemed like Omi's battery ran out for the day.

"Mhmmm. Just tired." A smile tugged on Atsumu's face as he slowly coaxed him to sit on the bed and as soon as he felt the soft mattress beneath him, Sakusa genuinely flopped sideways onto it, face pressed against his pillow. 

"What did you mean by we made it?" Genuine curiosity was layered in Omi's voice as he turned his head just slightly to open one eye.

"Well…" Atsumu sat down on the floor beside Omi's bed to make it easier for him to look at him. 

Before he could say anything though, Omi was watching him with an incredulous expression. At least how much he could look like that with only one eye peeking out from the pillow. “Why are you sitting on the floor? Don’t do that.”

Atsumu just rolled his eyes and smiled. “Don’t worry about it. And also….didn’t you hear how Komo-kun and Yakkun called each other by their first names today at practice? We really did it! They are close now, it’s only a matter of time until they confess to each other, I’m sure!”

“Heh. Guess the photo that Motoya posted was a good sacrifice. Can’t believe they really came up with that. I have to say I didn’t exactly think that this post would make Yaku talk about weddings, but you were right about it.”

A smirk settled onto Omi’s face and Atsumu couldn’t suppress mirroring it. “Nah. It was your idea of their shipname and the fact that you messaged me when Komori was on his way back. You really should have seen both of their faces when I called them Mori-kun, it was so funny! Didn’t expect them both to react to it and I guess they didn’t either, but damn. I wish I knew what happened after that. I did try to listen to them from outside, but then Bokkun turned the corner and I really didn’t need him to ask or shout at me why I pressed my ear against their door.”

Omi just shrugged his shoulders. “It can’t be helped. We should think about what to do next. They aren’t really super touchy with each other, right? I mean, apart from the usual high fives and claps onto their backs and you know, just them doing their libero stuff.”

“You mean, the way they literally get so competitive over who is better at serve receiving that they actually sometimes playfully shove each other away, only to call each of us to serve for them? Or do you mean the way Komori almost drapes himself all over Yaku to point fingers at Hoshiumi and Shouyou for when they get a good receive in, making sure that Yaku saw it? Or the way Yaku clicks his tongue when someone has a bad receiving form and calls them out for it, all while Komori is standing beside him, nodding along? Or-”

“Yes. I mean the blatant flirting they are doing under the disguise of being good libero friends. It’s hard to watch.” 

“It’s disgusting is what it is!” Atsumu nodded along to it, when he actually thought about Omi’s words. The thing about Yaku and Komori was that they were absolutely touchy with each other, but it was never much. Never more than what could be interpreted as friends having fun and that might be it, and Atsumu thinks that he never even once saw them hugging each other. That really had to change. Let them yearn. 

“But yer right. All they do is so boring, but I have an idea. How about this?”

*

“Baby! I miss you so much!” Yaku had finally found some time to facetime back to Russia again and was smiling delightedly into the camera that was in front of him while lying on his stomach in his bed, feet kicked high. “Do you miss me, too?” He nearly purred when suddenly he heard someone clear his throat. Looking up to the door, he found Motoya smiling sheepishly at him, one hand scratching the back of his head, while the other still lay on the doorknob. “Uhhh, I didn’t know you were facetiming someone. Should I...go again?”

“What? No. You can-” Yaku’s answer was interrupted by a loud meow, coming from his tablet screen. He immediately turned his face back to it and smiled. “Awww, I’m here. Don’t worry, queen. You still got my attention.” The yellowish amber eyes of his cat scrutinized him for a moment, before she settled down again, paws tucked under her body.

“Wait, what was that? Are you facetiming a cat?” Motoya asked incredulously and stepped a bit further into the room, his whole body leaning forwards in curiosity.

“It’s not just a cat. It’s my queen. Why? Got a problem with it?” Maybe Yaku was a bit defensive, but no one got the pass to talk shit about his british shorthair cat, not even Komori.

“No, not at all.” Motoya was waving his hands in front of him in defense, but then he had to speak up again. “I mean, personally I’m more of a dog person, but-”

“EXCUSE ME?” The pupils of his cat turned sharp again, as she looked at him in an almost offended way, but Yaku had to take a pause to glare at his roommate. So, this was the dealbreaker, huh? Getting over a little crush was probably or definitely easier, when his object of affection was not compatible with his one true love. However, he couldn’t leave it at that. “How can you say that?! Just look at her! I dare you to tell me that she isn’t cute!”

“Moriiii! Don’t look at me as if I’ve personally spit at your grandma! If you’d just let me finish speaking you’d know that I’m more of a dog person, but I still like cats! And...animals in general!”

Yaku just ignored his words, jumped up from his bed, took his tablet with him and then stretched out his arms, effectively shoving it in front of Motoya’s chest. “LOOK AT HER!”

Motoya giggled a bit and wow was that a nice sound, and proceeded to look down at the screen for approximately a maximum of 0.5 seconds. Yaku would have been offended, if his gaze wouldn’t have flicked up a bit again, trailing over Yaku’s face, before he finally looked into his eyes, holding the eye contact for a few seconds and whispered, “Yeah, very cute.”

Why did Yaku get the feeling that this was not aimed at his cat? 

“Well, should I leave you alone with her? I don’t want to intrude and you seemed very comfortable when you talked to her.” Komori scratched the back of his head as he looked at the ceiling.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Of course you can stay. In fact, do you want to join me? I- Well, we are nice company.” Yaku extended the offer, as he took back his tablet and held it next to his face with a grin. As if agreeing with him, another meow rang out in the room.

“Yeah, cool.” Motoya just nodded and without waiting, Yaku turned back to his bed, positioned the tablet at the end of it, and went back to his original position, only now making more room for Komori to also lay down on his stomach next to him, each of them propping themselves up onto their elbows.

As they lied next to each other, Yaku realized the error in his offer. He hadn’t really thought about it, but their shoulders were touching each other as his bed was definitely not big enough to fit them both in without them being a bit squished against each other. The warmth radiating from Motoya’s body was comforting, but it also made him way too aware of the position they were in right now. 

Trying to ignore it, Yaku just began to speak. “Okay, so Motoya, this is my queen, Polina. And Polina, this is Motoya. He’s sharing the room with me while you’re not here.”

His cat flicked her tail back and forth as she straightened up and stared at Motoya, who cheerily said “Hiii!” and waved a hand. Polina’s gaze just fixed onto Motoya and Yaku saw how her pupils narrowed into small slits as she assessed his fellow libero. After a few moments though she sat down again, flicked her gaze between both of them before her pupils returned to big round orbs in her yellow eyes.

“She has your eyes.” Motoya said after a few seconds and turned his head away from the screen to look at Yaku. 

“What do you mean?”

Motoya just hummed a bit, seemingly musing over his answer before he explained, “It’s the same scrutinizing gaze. The one you have when you concentrate very hard, or when you focus on someone on the opposite court. The way she looked at me was the way you do with your opponents. It’s kind of...terrifying? Or that’s not exactly it. It’s more like...You can’t look away. No matter how hard you want to.”

“Huh.” Yaku’s gaze drifted off to his cat for a bit, before looking at Motoya in thought. “I mean, I guess that’s what I try to accomplish. And that only means that Polina is a badass, too. She really is my baby.” Yaku laughed a bit, before smirking at Motoya. “So you can’t take your eyes off me, huh?” 

“Oh, c’mon!” Motoya just playfully shoved his shoulder, “You just said that’s what you want to accomplish. Egocentric much?” 

They giggled a bit, before a meow let them turn to the monitor again. 

“Seems like she wants attention. Probably something she picked up from you, too.” Motoya laughed, but still watched her with a grin and proceeded to murmur some soft words to her. Yaku watched and felt his heart swell. Damnit, why was this so cute?

“Why did you name her Polina, by the way? It’s a russian name, right?” 

“Oh, that. Yeah, I wanted her to have a russian name, you know with her being born in it. Uhm, so I got her when she was still very little, like 13 weeks old?” Motoya nodded and smiled at him, listening closely to what he had to say, so Yaku continued, “A distant family member of my teammate had a cat who just like had a litter with a few kittens, right? And when he heard that I was thinking about getting a cat, he asked if I wanted to take care of one, so that's how I ended up with her. Honestly, it's so crazy how many people in Russia have cats like it was so normal! Almost all of my teammates have one or know someone who has."

"So that's where your cat is staying right now?" Motoya interjected as he nodded to Polina, who laid down in her cat bed, observing them. 

"Yeah. She's at one of our outside hitter's house. The one who got me her in the first place. It's someone she already knows and he also has a cat and they both know each other and get along, so he takes care of her while I'm away." 

"That's so cool!" Komori smiled. "So, the name…?"

"Oh, yeah. I wanted a russian name, researched a few and kind of got stuck at Polina. It sounds cute and maybe I wanted to prove everyone wrong who said I wouldn't be able to pronounce the letter L right. What better way to learn it than having to say it every day?" Yaku laughed a bit at the memory, "And the name also really fit her, so I just stuck with it."

Komori watched him with an unreadable expression, almost seeming to want to say something, but deciding against it. A few moments later he instead asked, "That sparks the question of what the name Polina means."

At that Yaku literally freezed and couldn't stop his incoming blush. "Small," He just murmured, hoping Motoya wouldn't quite catch it.

"What was that?" 

"...It means small. Little. Short." Yaku reluctantly admitted. He caught the exact moment Motoya actually realized what Yaku has said, because he saw the little raised brow, heard the suppressed tone of a giggle in the quiet of their room and then Motoya slowly turned his head to look at his cat and then again at Yaku, letting his gaze wander from his head to toe and back, and then a wide grin was seen on his roommate's face.

Yaku, who saw what was coming, called out a warning, "Don't."

It didn't seem to stop Komori, because one moment he suppressed his giggle before in the next he actually burst out into laughter. "You...you really...you really named her little?" A teasing glint appeared in his eyes as he spoke out in between guffaws and playfully punched his arm, "Bold choice for someone who doesn't want to be called exactly that."

"Shut up!" Yaku just pushed back with an absolutely red face. It had seemed really fitting when he first named her!

"No, no! Tell me, what went through your head when you did so?" Motoya just didn't stop laughing, so Yaku did the first thing he could think of and just pushed him down from his bed. Motoya landed with a dull sound, effectively cutting off his laughter and then he heard a small, "Oww."

Yaku scrambled to the edge of his bed and as he looked down, Motoya was laying on his back, staring up at him offendedly. "Yaku Morisuke! Did you really just push me out of your bed?"

"You had it coming!" 

"It's not my fault that you named her short, what the hell? Can't believe my own roommate kicked me out of his bed. Am I really that undesirable?" Motoya dramatically asked with one hand over his eyes like he was some damsel in distress. That little shit.

Yaku just shook his head, but couldn't suppress a small chuckle. "Technically I wouldn't and didn't kick you out of my bed, I just pushed you down." Was Yaku aware what exactly he implied with this? Yes, yes he was. Did he care? Nope.

Motoya lifted his hand from his eyes again to look at him with a smirk before he started laughing again. "Honestly though, what were you thinking? Is she really that small to warrant that name?" Motoya asked in a fake innocent tone.

"SHE'S A CAT. OF COURSE SHE'S SMALL AND LITTLE. I don't know why you're making such a big deal out of it!"

"She seems like a pretty grown cat to me, but whatever makes you sleep at night, I guess."

"It's not my fault that she grew up from being a little kitten! At the time it was fitting, okay??" 

And this obviously did it for Komori, because he just flopped to the side and started laughing, before huffing out, "So you and your cat DO have differences, huh? With her growing?" 

Yaku decided here and now, that whoever thought that Komori Motoya was an angel had to be blinded and was absolutely wrong.

"Ahhh, stop laughing, goddamn it!" Not knowing what else to do, Yaku just jumped from his bed onto Komori and then they just giggled as they wrestled on the floor a bit as Yaku tried to make Motoya just STOP laughing at him, when suddenly Motoya completely stiffened and looked at him with wide eyes. Wondering what happened, Yaku’s eyes trailed over Komori when he realized what was wrong, or rather what Motoya’s weak spot was. With a demonic glint in his eyes, he looked at Motoya, who just whispered a small, “Oh no.” For a moment none of them moved, before in the next second Motoya tried to scramble up to escape, but Yaku was faster.

The thing was, Yaku had two little brothers, who were an absolute menace. He might be smaller than Motoya, and maybe he was even smaller than his brothers nowadays, not that he’d say that to anyone who didn’t need to know, but if there is one thing he learned, it was how to fight. And so, it was no wonder that he found himself sitting on top of Motoya, who lied on his back, trying to wiggle out, but as it didn’t seem to do anything, he now seemed like he regretted his former actions, because he looked up at Yaku with an innocent pleading face. “Don’t do it.”

“You didn’t stop either. And since you like to laugh at me so much, why don’t you keep going?” Yaku grinned and then he mercilessly tickled his sides, which seemed to be an absolute weak spot of Motoya, because he immediately began laughing and tried to get his hands away. 

“Moriiii!” Motoya squeaked out, and then in a futile attempt tried to tickle him, too, which, bad luck, because Yaku wasn’t ticklish. At least not at his sides.

“So, what was that about my height again? Care to elaborate?” Yaku just laughed, because honestly this whole situation was just too funny. 

“I-” Motoya giggled and if Yaku wasn’t wrong, there also was the one or other tear already going down his face. “Okay, okay! STOP!” Motoya finally called out, “Please….I can’t! I’m sorry, okay?!” 

Yaku immediately stopped with his tickling, but didn’t move from his spot.

“That was so unfair of you!” Motoya immediately pouted as he tried to catch his breath again.

“Was it now?” Yaku bent a little forward to grin down at his face. “I don’t think so. It’s not my fault you are ticklish.” 

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.” Motoya rolled his eyes, but there was a matching grin on his face that told him that he was equally amused as him. “Are you going to let me sit up again, or are you just going to stay there?” 

“I mean, it is quite comfortable right now.” Yaku winked cheekily. His roommate just flopped his head, that he had lifted to look at Yaku, back onto the floor again to stare at the ceiling with a sigh.

 _You are even rooming together. Ain’t there enough opportunities?_  
Why the fuck did Miya’s words came back to Yaku’s mind as he realized the position he was in right now?  
Shaking his head, because he really didn’t need these thoughts right now, Yaku stood up and then offered Komori a hand to help him up. Yaku remarked how warm the hand that gripped his was, but as he looked him over he couldn’t shake Miya’s words out of his mind. Motoya’s cheeks were flushed red from the adrenaline that kicked in, his clothes were a bit crumbled and his hair was messed up. Yaku was pretty sure he looked the same. They literally rolled around on the floor for a few minutes. Under other circumstances this would look really different but honestly? Yaku was also really happy right now. They both were just having fun and he felt comfortable around Komori.

Motoya sat down on Yaku’s bed again, this time leaning onto the wall and thus sitting crosswise on it, feet dangling over the edge. Even though they had more space this way, Yaku still couldn’t stop himself from sitting right next to him, with their arms touching, and then he took his tablet again and chuckled a bit.

“Look, she’s cleaning herself right now.” 

Motoya tilted his head as he watched Polina licking her own fur and then cheerily said, “I can’t believe she really meowed the moment you took your eyes off her earlier, but when I nearly die because I can’t catch a breath when laughing so much, she doesn’t care at all and just uninterestedly cleans herself.”

Yaku just chuckled. “Well, she just knows what’s up. You clearly deserved it, if she didn’t do anything.”

“Mhmmm...Yeah. Feeling the love right now.” Yaku also felt the love he had for Motoya right now, but he wouldn’t say anything about that.

For a while, they just comfortably sat next to each other, observing Polina who finished and then walked a bit closer to the camera, meowing a bit, only to turn around and lay back down on her cat bed, stretching herself.

Suddenly Motoya let out a breath and said in a soft tone, “She really is cute.” Yaku nodded, when Motoya continued, “Did you know that when I was younger, I really wanted to have a pet, too? Kiyoomi’s family had a small bird, but well. That's not quite the same. I always wanted a dog and even Kiyoomi would have loved one, but we never got it. And now that we’re old enough to decide ourselves, I still can’t have a dog, because with all the training and away games, I just wouldn’t have enough time to take care of it. It’s kind of sad.”

Yaku hummed as he let that sink in and as he thought about what to answer, his head more or less just found its way onto Motoya’s shoulder without realizing what he did. He felt the shoulder underneath him suddenly stiffen for a bit and couldn’t help but hold his breath. He could feel his heart beating faster and he just hoped Motoya wouldn’t hear it. He was an adult, goddamn it. Why was he still getting nervous about this? Before he could retract himself though, he felt a weight on his own head, as Motoya also leaned onto him and relaxed.

The quiet that spread out between them started to feel a bit awkward, but Yaku also didn’t dare to look up at Komori and instead answered, while carefully looking at the screen in front of him, “Uh, yeah. I understand that. I’m kind of lucky with Polina. She doesn’t mind being alone for a while and is pretty independent. And when I’m away for some games, there are enough people and friends of me who can take care of her. She’s pretty low-maintenance when it comes to that.” Yaku smiled happily at his cat.

Motoya started to chuckle which resulted in his whole body vibrating a bit, which Yaku all too clearly felt. It was still comfortable. “Maybe I should have settled for a cat instead of a dog then.”

“See? I told you that cats are better.” The offended and disagreeing sound Motoya made at that just let Yaku grin. 

“Okay, but on a serious note, though. I’m really glad that I have her. When I...well I got her I think a year and a half after I settled into Russia? Did you know that I have two younger brothers? I always was surrounded by chaos and going from a 5 people home to being alone in another country on the other side of the planet while being underestimated wasn’t easy. Not that I let anyone underestimate me for long, they really got to know firsthand not to mess with me, but yeah. It was weird coming back to a quiet home for the first bit.” 

“Yeah. I definitely can’t see you taking shit from anyone,” Komori mused with a soft voice close to his ears. “But that’s why you wanted to have a cat? To have some kind of companion?”

Yaku shook his head at that, which maybe wasn’t perfectly ideal, because well, he kind of nuzzled a bit more into Komori’s neck while doing that and the little giggle he let out just seemed to confirm to Yaku that Motoya really was ticklish, no matter what part of his body. “Nah. I always wanted to have a cat, being in Nekoma just underlined that,” At this Komori really began to laugh and thus lifted his head from Yaku’s.

Yaku couldn’t deny that he already missed the warmth, but after a few seconds his roommate settled down again and promptly returned to his former position.

“It’s just that at first I was really busy with finding my place in the team, working hard to be recognized, fighting myself into starting positions and getting a better hang on the language that I really just didn’t have the time to look for a cat. And then everything just kind of fell into place when I mentioned it offhandedly to my team. Well, and now she’s here and she’s the best roommate I could ever ask for, no offense.”

“None taken. I don’t think I can even dare compete with such a little cutie. And wait. Did she fall asleep?” Motoya nearly squealed and truly, there was only a big grey fluffy ball on the screen as Polina curled herself in her cat bed. 

“Awww, she’s so cute! Look at her fur! Look how she breathes! I wish I could pet her, oh my god!” Motoya cooed, but in a very soft and quiet whisper as to not wake her up.

The excited chitter of him just made Yaku smile as he watched Polina’s body move as she breathed in and out. “Hey. You probably should visit me in Russia sometime after this. You really need to see her face to face, she’s even cuter then.”

Suddenly Yaku was grabbed by his shoulders and forcefully turned to Motoya who looked at him with an excited expression, eyes sparkling and wide toothy smile. “Really?! Don’t play with me, I can and will book a flight in a matter of seconds if you just say yes!”

For a moment all Yaku could do was blink at the other libero before a chuckle escaped him. The enthusiasm Motoya was showing was really contagious and he just nodded. “Sure! Ekaterinburg is also a wonderful place, I can show you around when you’re there!”

“Yaaaay! It’s a plan then! I’m gonna hold you to that, no take backsies, Morisuke!”

“Of course not.” Yaku smiled before he looked back at the screen and the sleeping Polina. “I probably should text my teammate to stop the video call.”

“Okay!” Motoya said, but didn’t move from his spot and instead just leaned back at the wall again.

Yaku just mimicked him, but then leaned his head against Motoya’s shoulder again as he took out his phone and sent out a text. For a while they just sat there in comfortable silence, basking in each other’s companies, when a tall black haired man entered the screen. As he picked up the tablet and walked out of the room silently again, he looked at the camera and blinked for a moment in surprise when he saw that Yaku wasn’t alone.

“Hi, I’m Komori,” Motoya just greeted cheerily in english.

“Name’s Maxim.” The outside hitter said in a deep voice and then looked at Yaku with a smirk. “I thought you were a firm believer of not hitting on your teammates.” he said in russian, making sure that Motoya wouldn’t understand a word. 

“I am not.” Yaku just grit out between his teeth, resulting in Maxim raising a brow at the way Yaku was leaning onto Motoya. “We are just roommates, he’s the other libero.” 

“Whatever you say,” Maxim just shrugged, but then changed back to english and addressed Motoya with a heavy accent again, “You already witnessed him do the staring?”

“Hey!” 

“What?” Motoya asked confusedly, before adding, “Oh! You mean his intense glares on the court? Yeah, he does that quite often.”

Maxim just let out a loud laugh, “Yeah, yeah, that. Do me a favor and make Yaku’s life a bit difficult, okay? He deserves some competition for his position.”

“Will do!”

“EXCUSE ME? I’m still here?” Yaku just interrupted offendedly and looked at Maxim with a slight warning in his eyes. 

“No need to look at me like that. He seems like a funny guy. Well, I gotta go now, just text me if you want to see Polina again.” The hitter said in Russian, “And don’t forget protection, but I don’t think I have to say that to you, huh?” 

“MAXIM, I SWEAR-”

“Goodbye, Komori!” Yaku was again ignored and then the call ended abruptly after Motoya waved back.

“He seems like a nice teammate!” Motoya chuckled, before he stretched himself out of their position and looked at Yaku with mirth. “What did you two talk about?”

“He’s...okay. Dependable at least.” Yaku reluctantly admitted, because yes, Maxim was a great teammate and friend, but he also obviously liked to make fun of Yaku about his...well, inconsistent love life a bit too much. “Just likes to tease.” He consciously made the decision to not answer to Motoya’s question.

“Isn’t that normal, though? I feel like every team likes to tease each other.”

“Yeah, that seems to be a recurring theme.” Yaku mused as he thought about their national team. Honestly, he didn’t know a single person on it who hadn’t teased someone else one way or another.

“Well, I think we should maybe head to bed now, it’s getting late.”

Motoya just nodded to that and then smiled at him once more. “Thanks for letting me join your video call by the way! Your cat’s super cute and I honestly can’t wait to actually be able to really meet her one day.”

“Yeah. Just be careful. She generally is really easygoing and lets you pet her, but try to pick her up and she WILL fight you. I don’t take responsibility for any injuries that happen after.” Yaku remembered with a chuckle how he had warned Lev of exactly that, but of course the idiot had still tried to pick his cat up. Well, Polina was fast and she struck at a moment’s notice and at the end the photoshoot Lev had to do the next day ended in everyone’s agony, because they had to edit the large scratch Polina had made on his cheek out. Not to mention the few scratches on his arms, although they were at least covered by his clothes. Yaku had a good laugh after hearing about that and to this day Lev didn’t visit him when a photoshoot was close by. 

“Alrighty! And ha! I knew it. I knew that she was just like you!” Motoya grinned and nudged Yaku in the sides. 

“Well, try to lift me into the air and see what happens.” Yaku just smiled sinisterly.

“No, thank you. I didn’t forget your attack earlier. You know my weakness.” Motoya pouted a bit before standing up again. “You can take the bathroom first if you want.” He said and brushed through his hair which oh. It still was a bit messed up.

Yaku just nodded and left the room.  
As he brushed his teeth and looked into the mirror to see his reflection, Yaku noticed two different things.  
One, his hair also was a bit ruffled up which probably was the reason for why Maxim was looking at him like that.  
And two, he wore a smile on his face and his eyes were lit up. This was not good. He knew that. He had wanted to keep everything with Motoya on the down low, but got swept up in the excitement.

A sigh escaped him as he washed his face and stared into the mirror. 

Motoya was charming and he was comfortable to be with and they had so much fun together. Things with Motoya were easy and that. That was incredibly dangerous.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These two have absolutely no right to be that soft with such chemistry, but here we are. Yes, I also wanted them to kiss the whole time, I’m sorry it didn’t happen.
> 
> On another note, you might have noticed that I changed the chapter numbers. That’s because I had to rearrange how to cut off my chapters, bc I kind of went a bit ham on some scenes, especially in this chapter. This whole scene wasn’t supposed to be this long, but MoriMori just wouldn’t stop interacting, so yeah. Different cuts for the chapters, but what I planned is still the same. This is also the last chapter I have in store, I probably won’t be able to finish Ch.6 in time for an update in a week with the holidays coming up etc, so I guess this is it for the update schedule. I’m working on the new chapter though, so please bear with me! We’re going to find out what Atsumu and Sakusa planned in the next one!
> 
> Also: I love you all, all of your comments literally make me so happy and I'm so thankful and honored about this fic getting so much positive feedback. I never thought that this absolutely self indulgent rarepair would get this much traction (over 50 Kudos? I AM SO HAPPY), so thank you so much for this!  
> You can talk to me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/nicini02) if you like, or if you want some updates on my writing progress!
> 
> <3


	6. Chapter 6

“Okay, whose idea was it? I don’t need explanations, I only need names.” Yakkun asked as he stepped into the common room, and threw himself into one of the sofas, making himself comfortable and looking into the room with a raised brow.

“That’d be Atsumu.” Aran just threw him under the bus and as Atsumu was already opening his mouth to defend himself, Yaku just looked him into the eyes and sighed, “Figured.” 

“What’s that s’posed ta mean, Yakkun?”

Yakkun just shrugged at him and leaned back, when the door opened again. 

“Oh? Everyone’s already here? Oops, sorry, I’m late.” Komori grinned, not looking apologetic at all and then sat down next to Yakkun. Perfect. This was all so perfect. They really did half the work, honestly Atsumu thought it won’t be long anymore.

“I still don’t get why exactly we are doing this.” Kageyama murmured.

“Tobio-kun, it’s to help us build trust. As team bonding!”

“But I already do trust you all.” Kageyama just shrugged and sipped on his water, when Shouyou and Hoshiumi both shouted in unison, “Awww, Kageyama!” resulting in him choking on the drink from the surprise and Bokkun laughing loudly while patting or more like hitting him on the back while Kageyama coughed. 

“And team bonding is supposed to be happening by us...what? Gossiping about our deepest secrets like some high school kids? What exactly is this going to do on the court?” Gao challenged him, a smirk on his face.

“Hey, at least it’s better than that game night. Nothing good came from that one.” Hyakuzawa piped up.

“I’d say that the meme was a pretty good outcome.”

“OH YEAH? Wanna say that to my face, Gao? Want me to spike at you again? Bring it on!” 

“Alright, alright, everyone. Let’s just have some fun with this, okay?” Komori cheerily pointed out and thus interrupted the fight that was about to happen. 

“Thanks, Komo-kun! I just want to spice things up a bit here, c’mon, there ain’t nothing wrong with that.”

Aran just looked at him with a raised brow, but didn’t say anything to it, just sighed and then waved his hand in a go on movement.

“So, how exactly are we going to do this?” Wakkun suddenly stated from another armchair.

“Tsumu is going to start, right? We are just going from there, I guess,” Omi boredly answered beside him. Way to throw him under the bus, thanks. Atsumu rolled his eyes.  
Honestly it had been fairly easy to bring all of them together. After he had this grandiose plan, Atsumu had mentioned it offhandedly to Bokkun while they were doing their drills. Bokkun, bless him, was immediately all in for it and thus had roped Shouyou into it. With the two most outgoing people on this team being all for it, it had been no wonder that they were all here in the common room on the same evening.

“Well, I think we all know how this works, right? ‘M gonna say three sentences. Two truths, one lie. Ya discuss. We all have a fun time, this is great.”

Everyone just nodded to that and then Atsumu thought about what he could say. “Okay, I’m gonna start with spicy stuff. First, I’ve had a crush on more than one person on this team.”

“WHAT?” Omi suddenly startled beside him and Yaku leaned further with a glimmer in his eyes. “Ohh?” 

“Who was it, Tsum-Tsum???” Bokuto bounced up and down on the couch and grinned in expectation.

“Lemme finish first, Bokkun! Second, beside the normal insurance for, ya know, career ending injuries, I also have specific parts of my body extra insured. With a nice sum.”

Aran suddenly facepalmed himself, “I knew ya were the epitome of self absorbed narcissism, but really? REALLY, Atsumu? God, this one shouldn’t surprise me at all.”

Laughter filled the room as everyone else registered what he had said. “Hmm...maybe I should do this, too.” Tobio mused which prompted even more. “Don’t take an example from Miya Atsumu of all people, Kageyama. Seriously, this is not going to end well.” Hakuba laughed loudly and wow, rude much?

“Can I finish first before y’all attack me?” At least 5 of his teammates turned to him with a definite “No.” on their lips and Atsumu was only a bit offended over the fact that his Omi-Omi was one of them.

“What body part did you insure, Atsumu-san?” Shouyou curiously asked, head tilted slightly as he looked at him. 

“Probably his bleached hair or something.” Hoshiumi just cackled and wow. This was not what Atsumu had expected when he said that.

“Excuse me, it’s not my hair! I have very important other assets, thank ya very much. My hands for example. I’m a setter in case you didn’t notice.”

“Boohoo. We are all volleyball players, don’t think your hands are more important than ours.” The slander. The disrespect. 

“Yer all killing me!” It wasn’t even his hands. Atsumu had his thighs insured, because with the crazy amounts of sets he had to do at times they were incredibly important and his physical therapist had also encouraged him on that when Atsumu had first thought about it. It ain't weird.

"What's the last one, Atsumu?" Ushijima's voice cut through the laughter and Atsumu grinned ferociously as he voiced his last sentence. Sweet revenge. "I already fucked in our changing room at this training camp."

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?" 

“WHAT.”

"KIYOOMI! SAY SOMETHING" Komori screeched in a high pitched voice, but Omi was just looking at Atsumu with an incredulous gaze.

"Why are you involving me in this?!" 

"Pscht, Omi. I haven't told them yet if it's the truth or not. This is fun, really."

Kiyoomi glared at him for a moment before he leaned back into the couch again, closing his eyes and apparently done with the whole conversation. "Yeah. I won't say anything, don't ask me. I know what the truth is, you guys discuss or whatever."

"Oi, Sakusa?" Yaku asked in such a genuine curious tone that Omi actually did open his eyes again and raised a brow at him. "I've been wondering for a while now, but really. Why exactly are you together with him? Like genuinely? Aren't there better options?" 

"Yakkun? Excuse me, that's so rude!" Atsumu's words were drowned in the roaring laughter that filled the room. Honestly, he did not deserve this slander.

A sigh escaped Omi's mouth as he answered, "Yeah, I don't know. Probably? I'm asking myself that every day." 

"Omi-Omi!" 

Kiyoomi rolled his eyes at him before leaning forward to give him a quick kiss. Atsumu couldn’t even react before their team startled him.

“Ewww. Get a room, you two.” Hoshiumi teased and Gao added, “Yeah, but not our freaking changing room? What the hell, please tell me it’s a lie.” 

“I don’t think Sakusa would actually do this, right? Not in our changing rooms. I refuse to believe this.” Aran mentioned and wow that was really sweet and pure.

“Oh, believe me. He does.” Bokuto piped up in a sagely tone and looked into the airspace in the middle of the room as if he was recalling a memory, “The things I had to see with my own two eyes.”

“That was ONE time, Bokkun! It wasn’t even that bad, jeez.” 

Bokuto just looked him dead in the eye and grinned, “Well, Wan-san said he had nightmares of you two for the first week after.”

“Shion loves theatrics, don’t believe him when he says something like that.” Omi answered and rolled his eyes.

“Awwww, was that after I left the team? Why do I always miss the fun?” Shouyou-kun pouted, only to be shot down by Tobio who was narrowing his eyes at Atsumu, “I don’t think I would categorize this under fun.” 

Atsumu only smiled in retaliation.

“Wait, wait, wait. So, we agree that they did the deed? That means it has to be the insurance thing, right? No way did he do that, c’mon.” Hyakuzawa mumbled and looked suspiciously at him. 

“Kiyoomi seemed very surprised about the mention of Atsumu having a crush on one of us, so I believe that this one has to be the lie,” Wakkun interjected and well, yeah. Okay, that was a good point, but Omi-kun had closed his eyes again and resumed his ignoring of everyone else in the room, so Atsumu just smiled.

“Mhm, I think I’d agree.” Komori piped up. Yaku seemed to deflate at that and murmured, “Well, if Motoya says so, it has to be right.” Honestly, were they both blind? The way they always agreed with each other honestly was annoying him. Disgusting.

“Is that your final answer?” When everyone just nodded at him, Atsumu grinned. “Wrong. Omi and I did not do it in the changing rooms. Honestly, what kind of people do ya think we are?” They did it in the showers. But he wasn’t going to say that, because Omi would kill him if he did.

“Wait! Who was your crush then, Tsum-Tsum?” Bokkun cheerily asked and Atsumu pretended to think about it. There was only one reason why he mentioned this fact and so he drawled, "Nuh-uh. That's not part of the game. But I feel a little bit generous, so I might answer it, if" and now Atsumu pointedly let his gaze wander to Yaku, "Mori-kun here also says if he did or _does_ have a crush on one of our teammates."

"Why the fuck are you asking me?" Yakkun hissed and glared at him with narrowed eyes as if he wouldn't know exactly why Atsumu did so. 

Kiyoomi grabbed his thigh in warning but Atsumu knew what he was doing. For a moment he let this picture sink into his memory. Most of his teammates had turned their heads to Yaku, a few looked at Atsumu with a raised eyebrow, but Komori...Komori had whipped his head to Yaku and stared at him as if this was the only information that mattered. When they finally got together, Komo-kun really owed him one for this.

He ignored the glaring and the warning Yaku seemingly wanted to convey with his gaze only and instead smiled sweetly at him, "That's because I don't really know you yet. You haven't played in the V.League, I have no gossip on you whatsoever."

Yaku's eyes turned into slits as he continued to stare at him, but Atsumu thought he got his way, when Komori nudged Yaku and laughed, “C’mon Mori. Tell us.” under the cheers of everyone else. Perfect.

Yaku then closed his eyes for a moment, before giving out a very loud sigh and turned into the room with a grin, "Don't look at me like that, guys. I'll answer, jeez. I mean, let's be honest, I'm sure everyone here at least had a small crush on someone else, right?" Yaku then turned to Atsumu with a smirk on his face, "I also bet it was Chibi-chan you were crushing on."

Wait. Atsumu’s eyebrows rose as he stared incredulously at Yaku, “How did you know that?!”

“I KNEW IT!” Bokkun shouted as he grabbed Shouyou and ruffled his hair, “I knew there was some tension when Hinata joined the team.”

“Ehhh?” Shouyou looked up at him sheepishly as he tried to straighten his hair again as if that was possible, “Why didn't you say something? Sorry, I didn’t notice.”

Atsumu just sighed. “It’s okay, Shouyou-kun. It was just a small crush and I knew it was lost the moment ya called me by ‘Samu’s name.” He couldn’t stop the accusing and offended tone in his voice though.

“I already said I was sorry!”

“How did you even mistake them for each other?” Hoshiumi laughed at Shouyou.

“In case you didn’t notice: They are twins!” Shouyou defended himself, but was shot down by Hyakuzawa immediately, “Yeah, but they have completely different hair colors. Atsumu’s the blonde one.”

“I know that!” Shouyou screeched out at the same time Komori mumbled under his breath, “Yeah, the dumber one.” which led to laughter again.

“Can we stop calling me out for once and just keep going? Damn.” Atsumu rolled his eyes.

As they went through the next few rounds of two truths and one lie, the atmosphere in the room was still light and fun. They learned stuff about each other that was incredibly fun, like Shouyou throwing it down at Rio’s carnival, Hyakuzawa making a kid cry, Ushijima being in a food documentary, Bokuto having to rush into a hospital, because he was scratched by a cat he tried to help and Aran having a weird as fuck sleeping ritual. Honestly had that always been that way? Atsumu thought that that might’ve been Kita’s influence, but whatever. He really didn’t need to know which candles from which particular brand had to be lit up for exactly 9 minutes before Aran went to sleep. And here he had thought that Bokuto would be the arduous roommate between the two of them. And then Aran really had the nerve to call Atsumu a Diva, pff.

Between all the laughs and random facts, Atsumu had totally forgot about Yaku being sleek as fuck and evading his question about his crush. Fair play, Atsumu had to give that to him, but then it was Yaku’’s turn.

“C’mon, Yakkun! Give us some interesting facts! Something spicy!”

Yakkun just turned his head to Atsumu and then smiled ominously as he started, “Okay. First, I was responsible for getting someone into the hospital.” Yakkun didn’t blink as his eyes fixated on Atsumu and somehow he couldn’t shake off the feeling of this being a threat. It wasn’t, was it?

“Wait. What do you mean, responsible?” Wakkun suddenly interrupted and Yaku turned his head to Wakkun and with a blink the threatening aura disappeared as he cheerily answered, “Oh. I’m talking about broken bones being involved. That...you know, I inflicted, so they needed to get into the hospital.”

“Hold on. Back up for a moment. Did you want to harm them or was it an accident? Like...things happen. We’re pro athletes after all, so…?”

Yaku just shrugged. “That is for me and only me to know.” 

“Let’s go, Yaku!” Hoshiumi laughed loudly and hit Hinata’s arm while doing so. “I hope they deserved it!”

“I swear, one day Yaku’s going to kill us all. I’ve known it since that one poster came out.” Gao murmured and Yuudai just nodded along to his roommate as the both of them narrowed their eyes at Yaku in suspicion. Or fear. Atsumu wasn’t quite sure, but he also kind of hoped that this one was a lie. Who knows what Yaku did for this not to get out into the public?

And Komori just watched Yaku in something akin to awe. Seriously, did none of these two realize how they ogled each other? Just fucking get together already.

“Don’t worry. I won’t hurt you. You are my teammates after all.” Yeah. As if that was the only problem Yaku saw with this.

“Okay, second fact. Hm…” Yaku looked at the ceiling for a bit, before nodding and with a grin he announced, “I have models frequently going in and out of my apartment.”

“Seriously, what kind of life are you living, Yaku?” Aran asked what Atsumu had been thinking all along.

“A great one, thanks for asking!” Yaku just laughed as he leaned back into the couch and continued, “And my last fact would be...well. I'm a pretty good skier if I dare say so myself."

"Ski? That would make sense. Russia is very cold and I think it's fair to assume that Yaku engaged in winter sports there," Wakkun stated calmly.

“Okay, then if that’s the truth: Can we please talk about the fact that Yaku just said that he has models frequenting him? What?” Komori asked incredulously when Shouyou suddenly jumped up and snapped his fingers to get their attention, “Ohhh, I know now! It’s Lev, right Yaku?” 

Yaku just laughed and nodded. “Yeah. Him and Alisa. Whenever they have a runway or photoshoot in Russia, they like to stop by for a bit.”

“Wait a minute, who are they? I’m still confused,” Aran asked.

“The Haiba siblings. I think they are pretty well known here? There’s a big poster of them in Shibuya for some perfume ad,” Yaku explained. 

“Lev was part of Yaku’s team in High School!” Bokuto excitedly added.

“Alright, so if that’s the truth, too, that means that Yaku didn’t put someone in the hospital.” Gao laughed, “I mean, of course he didn’t. That would be too violent, right?”

“Uhm. That actually was one of the truths,” Yaku suddenly mentioned, “I don’t ski. I’m more of a snowboarder.”

“What.” Yuudai flinched.

“Yeaah. Funny story actually, maybe one day I’ll tell you all about it.”

“Yaku is scary. On and off court.” Bokkun mused sagely and nodded to himself.

Laughter filled the room, before they changed the topic to someone else. It was a fun team bonding night and Atsumu had to say that his favorite truth was probably Gao’s story about a date that first things first had suddenly taken out a perfume bottle to spray him with it as if to mark their territory. Atsumu almost had choked on his laughter and he hadn’t been the only one.

And then it was finally Kiyoomi’s turn. After telling two rather harmless sentences, Kiyoomi had looked up with the absolute smuggest smirk ever and had pointedly looked at Komori to state, “And my last fact is that I have a cousin who still needed a cuddle blanket when he 17 years old.”

For a moment there was silence as everyone collectively turned their heads to Komori who just blinked in surprise. A moment later hell broke loose.

“What the fuck, Kiyoomi?! Why are you involving me, what did I do to you?!”

“What...You know exactly what you did to me! This is retaliation, nobody said anything when Atsumu involved me, too!”

“And then you thought, oh yeah? Let’s humiliate me?! If that’s how you want to play, fuck you! I have years of blackmail on you, couz! You don’t know what you brought upon yourself, I’m gonna annihilate you!” Komori screeched in a battlecry and waved his cellphone around as if it was a weapon, which it probably kinda was.

Laughter filled the room as everyone watched the cousins scream at each other when suddenly Kiyoomi elbowed him. As Atsumu caught his eyes in surprise, Omi glared at him, almost saying _Do something, goddamn it. I didn’t do this out of pure fun_ and then Atsumu remembered. Oh, yeah. They did plan this one fact together beforehand.

As the shouts turned into vicious glares, Atsumu cleared his throat and then grinned at Yakkun and wiggled his eyebrows. “Hey, Mori-kuns. Maybe you both should just cuddle at night for Komori to get his A-game on. We don’t want to have a sleep deprived libero at the Olympics now, do we?”

Yaku just stared at him, when suddenly Komori actually threw himself onto Yaku, wrapped his arms around his torso and thus effectively hugged him. Wait. This was unexpected. “Moriiiiii. Would you be my cuddle blanket while we plan the murder of our teammates?” Komori whined in a fake way and squeezed harder as he glared at Omi. Atsumu watched as Yaku stilled, obviously also surprised about the sudden physical contact. Komori still hadn’t let go and Yaku’s eyes had widened and...was that a blush he saw? Atsumu couldn’t help but grin and squeezed Omi’s hand. This was working way better than they could’ve hoped.

“Yeah, uh. Sure.” Yakkun murmured and blinked, before he turned to Motoya and returned the hug hesitantly. “Let’s wreck some havoc. I’m always down for it.” 

“PERFECT! You heard that, Kiyoomi? You better sleep with one eye open today!”

Omi just huffed at that, “Please. As if you’d be able to do anything. If you use Yaku like you’d use your cuddle blanket you’d be out like a light in two seconds.”

Atsumu and the team could just stare at the cousin’s bickering when Tobio-kun suddenly stated, “I guess we now know one of Sakusa’s truths.”

Laughter errupted when Komori screeched, “Fuck that! It’s my turn now. First, I don't like neon colors.” He didn’t even pause or let anyone say anything before he ruthlessly continued, “Second, I am a very lovable person which is underlined by the fact that I have a cousin who literally started crying every time he found out that I wouldn’t be attending one of our family gatherings.”

“That’s a lie!” Omi shouted, but Komori just retaliated, “You KNOW that it isn’t! Want me to call Auntie, right now? I won’t hesitate, bitch!”

“I WAS A KID! You are the most unlovable person I know, you annoying brat!”

“EXCUSE ME?!”

“Should we...interfere?” Tobio asked as his head ping-ponged between the two who were interchanging insults. Yuudai was just facepalming himself again, mumbling, “Just one...Give me just one normal evening.” Aran and Ushijima had stopped listening to the commotion and were actually just ignoring it as they talked about something else and Gao laughed loudly as he turned to Atsumu. “This was a great idea. Thanks for that.” 

“Agreed,” Hoshiumi grinned and actually high-fived Gao.

“I think Komori is very lovable!” Bokuto cheered under the nods of Shouyou and Yaku.

“See! You’re just a grump, Kiyoomi, but I know you love me!”

“Fuck off.”

“Alright, then my last fact is that I had a One Direction stan phase...together with my wonderful cousin.”

“Why are you always lying?!”

“Tell that to your younger self that played Live While We’re Young on repeat in this very building years ago and was looking up funny moments of them on youtube!”

“Oh no, you did not just say that! I thought we agreed to not let anyone know about THAT EMBARRASSING PHASE!” 

“I THOUGHT WE AGREED TO NOT TALK ABOUT MY CUDDLE BLANKET AT THE YOUTH CAMP, BUT STILL SOMEHOW HERE WE ARE!”

“I hate you!”

“You love me!”

_You’re insecure, don’t know what for. You’re turning heads when you walk through the do-o-or._

“What the fuck.” Everyone’s heads whipped around to Bokuto who had been in charge of the music that played in the background and who now stood there, phone in hand and laughing as he started the One Direction song. “Hey, I loved them, too. Next time we can play it in our training sessions at MSBY, yeah Omi? You should’ve said something sooner!”

Atsumu laughed as he nudged Omi lightly, “I didn’t know either. Damn. Let’s have a One Direction party back at MSBY, I bet we can make Wan-san suffer with it.”

“Nooo! I wanna join! Let me in! I don’t want to miss the fun again!” Shouyou quipped and jumped up. 

“ME TOO! I will invade your practices, get some inside info while I’m at it!” Komori laughed.

“Hold on!” Hoshiumi shouted and also jumped up. “How many of you guys liked One Direction?”

Slowly, most of their hands rose and, “Wait, you too, Yakkun?”

Yaku sighed and rolled his eyes, “I mean, hard not to get caught up in the catchiness of their songs when Bokuto and Kuroo were unironically blasting their songs all training camps long!”

“Aha! So you did like them!” Bokuto grinned and they all erupted in laughter again.

It was a fun evening as they laughed and shared some other fun stories, while One Direction was blasting in the background. 

*

Yaku stared at the ceiling. It was pitch black dark and he couldn’t sleep. Was it 2am? 3am? Who even knew, he wasn’t going to take his phone out to look at the time, but it was late and he turned and turned, but he couldn’t sleep.

It had been fun, really, he had a good laugh after that evening, but whatever Yaku did, he just couldn’t get the feeling of Motoya hugging him out of his mind. He missed it. It had been comfortable and warm.

A little sigh escaped him. This was a disaster, why couldn’t he keep his freaking emotions in check?

“Morisuke?”

Yaku whipped his head into the direction of the soft voice that had called out his name. Not that he could really see anything in the dark, but he assumed the shadow that rustled in the bed next to him was in fact Motoya.

“Toya? Why are you awake?” He whispered into the dark.

“I could ask you the same thing.” Motoya hummed, equally quiet as him. 

Yaku stared back at the ceiling and then closed his eyes. “Just couldn’t sleep.”

A soft laugh rang through the room and Yaku really thought that this might be one of the most beautiful sounds he’s ever heard. Fuck Motoya for being so calming. “Yeah. I could tell. You’ve been turning for quite a while now.”

“Wait, what? How long have you been up? Did I wake you? Sorry about that.” Yaku really had to go and take sleep away from Motoya, huh? They still had training to do the next day, goddamn it. He couldn’t fuck up someone else’s sleep schedule.

“Hmm, a few minutes? I’m not sure and no, don’t worry. I didn’t wake up from your turning.”

“Okay.”

There was silence again and Yaku turned his head again to look at the dark shadow next to him. Motoya rustled with his blanket, but the quiet went on, until Yaku couldn't take it anymore.

"So? Why did you wake up? You are normally out a few seconds after the lights are out."

Motoya just hummed in thought at that, but otherwise didn't say anything. After a minute or maybe more passed, Yaku closed his eyes again, not expecting to get an answer.

"I...was thinking about you." Motoya quietly and hesitantly whispered and Yaku almost didn't pick it up, but he was pretty sure he didn’t misheard. 

_“Oh.”_

Yaku was not dumb, nor was he naive or innocent, he knew what that meant and understood the implications. Honestly it shouldn’t surprise him that much, the both of them had kind of gotten a bit too close these last few days. It was one thing to just muse about his own little crush, but another thing when he knew it was probably reciprocated. Yaku couldn’t do this. He refused to give in to this and as the pause in the conversation continued on, he closed his eyes.

There was a weight in the dark of the room and Yaku just knew that Motoya was waiting for him to say something, anything in response. It hurt but he had to crush that hope. After all, he was good at that, wasn’t he? Breaking other’s spirits? 

Not a single word was uttered for the rest of the night as the both of them fell asleep in uncomfortable silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kiyoomi’s fave was Zayn, Motoya’s either Louis or Niall. I don’t take any arguments on this. They were Directioners. Also, Ushijima came to like the music because Tendou was ironically listening to them to annoy Semi and Shirabu.
> 
> Also, as ridiculous as the perfume story sounds...it’s a true one. Not my story tbh, but somewhere out there someone sprays perfume at their dates lmao.
> 
> Also ahh, I’m so sorry it took me so long to update. but I also did write 3 other fics in the meantime, so cheers to that? (Check them out if you want, I’m kinda proud of them) One of them is a small, very fluffy New Year's Eve one shot of MoriMori in the future of this universe, that I made part two of this series.  
> I also might write some other short ficlets about the fun stories I couldn’t fit into this main plot, when this whole fic is finished and I’m not burned out from it lmao, but until then MoriMori is just a placeholder name for this series.
> 
> Oh, and here’s a little soft [Twitter thread](https://twitter.com/Nicini02/status/1339355053304537088) about my headcanon on what I think hugging feels like to MoriMori. As a treat after I hurt you with that last scene. I have a plan, I promise. It’s -hopefully- worth it.
> 
> Thanks for reading everyone and I hope you at least had fun for most of the chapter. I’ll try to get the next one out a bit faster. <3
> 
> [My Twitter](https://twitter.com/Nicini02)


	7. Chapter 7

This wasn’t what he had planned.

With one hand Yaku wiped away the sweat on his forehead, before he got into position again and stared at the other court, or more likely stared at Motoya. 

Yaku had known what he had done the moment he refused to answer Motoya the night before and today...Motoya had just pretended like nothing had happened. They went to breakfast together like always, talked strategy and fun, teased each other, laughed with their teammates and were still as close as before. However, something was off.

Motoya had awoken slightly dishevelled, but had wished him a good morning, before getting himself ready and had proceeded to completely ignore the night before and Yaku who didn’t want to bring it up himself, had followed. Somehow something was still different. Yaku surely did not imagine or dream that interaction and today he found himself watching Motoya more often, waiting for….something to happen. Anything. For him to snap or something, but all Motoya did was sometimes smile into the air with an absent gaze. Yaku didn’t know what to make of it.

And somehow they landed here. On opposite sides of the court because training was almost over for the day but they all thought it might be fun to see what result a 3 on 3 of their liberos, setters, and small hitters would bring.

It was kind of fun though, because both of their teams were really even and so the scoreboard also showed that. Though Yaku had to kind of admit that he was a little bit distracted every time Motoya glanced over at him as if he was searching for something. Well, it was Miya's turn to serve, so at least Motoya's gaze was not locked onto Yaku right now.

As Motoya received the serve and damn, Yaku had to take a moment to admire that nice and clean receiving form, Kageyama set to Hoshiumi, who spiked at them and Yaku...Yaku was a bit too late.

He took a second too long to get back into position and fuck, what was he even doing? Yaku still got under the ball, but the dig was a bit off. Not too bad, but Miya had to scramble a bit and definitely bend down slightly more than he would have needed and maybe Yaku was imagining it, but he could almost feel Miya narrowing his eyes in annoyance, as he set it to Hinata who quickly hit it down and scored them a point.

For a moment, no one said anything, and then suddenly Miya whirled around and glared at him, “Yakkun, you scrub!” 

“I-” 

“Atsumu-san! It’s fine.” Hinata unnecessarily chimed up to interrupt Yaku and took a step to Miya.

“No, it’s not. What the fuck was that?!” Miya seemed actually angry as he continued to glare at him, “That was-”

“Absolutely shitty, yeah, I know.” Yaku sighed and put a hand on his hip, “I wasn’t paying attention. I’ll adjust, sorry.”

He wasn’t sure about what he said seemed to be wrong, but Miya’s expression seemed a bit like Yaku had slapped him. He looked taken aback, furrowed eyebrows relaxing and his angry face melting into one of surprise.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Yaku slowly asked, head tilting a bit as he scrutinized the setter in front of him and considered his words.

As if shaking him out of his thoughts, Miya’s face returned to a frown, “I’m not looking. And yeah. Right. You better do.”

“No, no, wait. Hold on,” Yaku was surely missing something, right? For a moment he narrowed his eyes again, before realisation struck him.

“You...Were you expecting me to fight back on you with that?” Miya’s silence was answer enough.

For a moment Yaku just blinked before his voice turned a bit softer as he stated, “Look, I don’t care how you talk to me. If it’s the truth, just spit it out. I won't get offended. If someone fucked up, tell them they fucked up. I wouldn’t be preaching that if I wouldn’t be able to stomach what I dish out.”

He grinned at Miya before looking over to the other side of the court again, "I'll adjust. So let's win this thing, alright?"

A smirk settled onto Miya’s face as he walked back to the serving position, “Yeah, that’s what I wanted to hear.”

Hinata was looking back and forth between them, before nodding enthusiastically, “Yeah!”

Yaku meanwhile took a deep breath and let it out again. Fuck everything. This was volleyball, he couldn’t neglect it just because of a crush. He couldn’t just zone out in the middle of a game, what the hell was he doing? For a moment he closed his eyes, but the moment he opened them again, he knew his gaze was ablaze. Time to focus on what’s really important now.

It was actually really fun. Miya and Shrimpy were a great combo, it made Yaku excited about the possibilities this team brought, and one particularly long rally that they somehow won got Yaku crushed in a hug as both of them jumped to him with high fives and shouts. It was fun and had Yaku laughing, too.

At the end they lost by a really small margin. It was a hard fought battle though and Yaku couldn’t deny the fun they had, this team would go places, he was absolutely sure about that.

“Ha! Another win for me!” Kageyama grinned at Hinata who scrunched up his face, when Hoshiumi nearly jumped onto Kageyama and added by pointing at Shrimpy, “This time, I won again, Hinata Shouyou!”

“Don’t be too full of yerselves yet!” Miya exclaimed and also leaned onto Hinata’s shoulders.

“Next time we’re going to win!” 

Suddenly Yaku felt Motoya’s presence next to him. He had just crossed under the net and naturally slinked to Yaku’s side and...when had that become normal around them?

“That was fun, right?” Motoya grinned and nudged him, “Getting your ass kicked?”

“Oh, c’mon, might I remind you of that one play you almost got hit in the face with the volleyball? You think you are slick, but I saw that.” 

Motoya just laughed loudly in response and then winked at him, “Still won. I think my favorite part was all of you three doing the tongue thing though.” They walked to the side to grab their water bottles. “Honestly I almost burst out laughing at seeing you all do that at the same time.”

“Wait. What tongue thing? What are you talking about?” 

Motoya paused midway of his drinking motion, water bottle stopping right in front of his mouth and no- Don’t stare at his lips, Yaku. Get yourself together. He instead looked up into Motoya’s eyes who were watching him in a disbelieving way, eyebrows furrowed.

“You know….the tongue thing. That’s what Kiyoomi and me call it. Didn’t you realize that you really like to stick your tongue out when you are concentrating? It happens fairly often.” 

“I-” Hmm...Yaku didn’t really think about it, but it may be true. He almost could recall someone else saying that to him too, but he didn’t really remember. Well- “I guess. I don’t know. It happens.” Yaku shrugged and then scratched the back of his head. Was that bothersome? Should he stop?

“Don’t worry, it’s cool. Quite a few of our teammates do it actually, including Atsumu and Hinata. So it was really fun when suddenly all of you three were sticking your tongues out at us out of nowhere.”

Yaku laughed, “Next time, let’s time it so that everyone does it. Might make for a great intimidation tactic at the Olympics. Or just makes the other team laugh. Either way, their concentration might break. Should be worth it.”

“Jeez, you really won’t give our opponents time to breathe, huh?”

Yaku just raised an eyebrow, “Well, duh.”

Motoya smiled at him, this time with that absent gaze again that he’d brandished the whole day long. Yaku didn’t like this.  
Before he could say anything though, Miya’s voice cut through their silence, “Hey, Mori-kun!”

Both Yaku and Motoya looked up, but Miya’s gaze was only on Yaku. “Want to stay a while longer to receive a few of my serves?”

“Huh? Why him and not me?” Motoya confusedly asked as he looked back and forth between Miya and Yaku.

Miya smiled cunningly and answered, “Well, because you’ve already received quite a few of mine today. And Yakkun surely could use some more practice, doesn’t he?” And there was this damn smirk again that Miya showed him as a challenge and that really got onto Yaku’s nerves. 

Feeling his eyebrows twitch, he forced a vicious smile on his face, “Ohh, you can be honest with me. No need to hide it. Of course, I’ll help you with your serves. They might need some work. Want Kageyama to join, too?”

They continued to glare at each other, when Motoya cleared his throat and then slapped each of their backs with a hand, “Well, have fun, you two. I’m going.” He just walked through them to join in on Kageyama and Hyakuzawa who were on their way out.

For a moment silence spread between them before Yaku disrupted it, “So.”

“So?”

“Is there a reason as to why you only call me Mori when Motoya is near me?”

“Is there a reason as to why yer always near Motoya? Oh yeah, there is. There ya have the answer.”

Yaku just rolled his eyes, not wanting to open that conversation again. Instead he began walking to the court. “Well, whatever. Show me your serves.”

*

“Damn it. One more!” Miya called out across the court as Yaku received the next volleyball. They’ve been going at it for almost half an hour now, but Yaku had to say that it was pretty fun. He liked working out and he had to respect that Miya’s work ethic also seemed to be working as long as it took to perfect whatever he was trying to achieve.

However, “You’ve been saying this for the last five times now. Maybe we should really stop.”

Miya just threw back, “But you stayed, so come and get the next one, too!”

“Don’t fucking command me!” Yaku shouted, but still went back into position. 

Miya then did another serve, Yaku was ready to receive it but this time he wasn't able to kill the speed and power of it correctly and it just went right over the net to the other side of the court again.

"Fuck. Miya, do it again!"

"Oh, see who's talking now!" Miya just laughed at him, and held out the volleyball he caught to point it at him accusingly.

“Shut up and serve! This one’s really going to be the last!” Yaku rolled his eyes but still couldn’t repress a small chuckle. Yeah, maybe he really wasn’t better. He was a competitive athlete at the very end, so what? Sue him.

This time, Yaku did get the ball up again to where the setter would be and with a triumphant grin, he looked at Miya who looked like he bit into a lemon. 

“Damnit, Yakkun! Why are you so good at this?!” Miya whined as he started to collect the scattered volleyballs that were all around the court.

“Yo, Miya. It’s my job to get these balls up. I’m a libero in case you didn’t notice. Of course, I’m good.” Miya just looked back at him with a pout and threw the balls in the cart and Yaku sighed, as he walked next to him to acknowledge, “However, I do think your serves are probably the meanest out of our team.”

“Wait, you do?”

“Yeah. I mean, Ushiwaka’s serves are fucking hard. Like they hurt and are just really powerful. But he isn’t the only powerful person I’ve ever encountered and once you get the hang out of his left handedness, you’re good to go. Kageyama’s serves are a combination of fast, hard and precise. They are…” Yaku tried to put it into words, “From like a technical aspect only I think they are the best out of the team. He...perfected his jump serves. Oh, and I hate Sakusa’s serves and spikes. Like I really despise them, they are so disgusting. That fucking wrist. One day, someone's going to snap and break it. You should keep an eye on him, it's gonna happen the moment we begin to win games at the Olympics. Get him to insure them like you did with your thighs or something like that."

Miya just laughed loudly and nodded, "Right? Omi's wrists are totally disgusting, I get what you mean. They are nasty," Despite his words, Miya sounded incredibly proud about it, almost like parents talked about the achievements of their kids. Yaku could only smile at that display of affection.

"Yeah. However, yours are the meanest. Not only do you wield three different ones and honestly, what the heck? But it's also fucking impossible to say which serve you're going to do. It's a challenge to get them everytime. I kind of pity our opponents."

"Do you now?" Miya raised an eyebrow.

"No, that's a lie. Can't wait to see their desperation over it." 

They broke out into laughter over his honesty and then Miya nudged him with his elbow, "Thanks. You're not too bad yerself, Yakkun." 

Yaku just grinned. "Yeah, yeah. I know."

Miya sat down on a bench to drink some water, before he looked at Yaku again, "Which is why I was so annoyed about you being distracted earlier for like half of the game. That was unlike ya. What was that about?"

Yaku just plopped down and began his stretches. 

“Wait, are you telling me it was about Komo-kun? Is that what your silence means?”

Stupid setters and their ability to overanalyze their teammates. Why are all of them like that? Well, there was no way Yaku could deny it, “Hm. Yeah, kinda.”

“Woah, did finally something happen between you two?” When Yaku looked over at Miya, he had a genuinely excited expression on his face, full of crinkles around his eyes and wide smile. It kind of made Yaku feel bad and he contemplated if he should tell him what had happened. At the end, he was the only one who knew about Yaku’s feelings and therefore the only one Yaku could talk to about this. And Miya also wasn’t actually that bad. Kinda obnoxious, but a good one. Might as well.

“I guess. I mean, I kinda rejected him last night.”

Miya’s expression immediately fell and he blinked before he shrieked, “HE CONFESSED?”

Yaku made a face before answering, “Well, not exactly. I uh. Stopped him before it could happen.”

“Yakkun. You really need to explain right now, what the hell?”

And so Yaku did. Told him that he was running pretty low on sleep today, which probably also was a reason as to why he had been so easily distracted, about how he couldn’t sleep and how Motoya had awoken, too. How they had a late night talk, only for Yaku to pull away and stop whatever would have been getting out of Motoya’s mouth after.

“And like, I know where it was leading, okay? It’s not fucking hard to understand, I do know him pretty well by now. So I just stopped him right then and there.”

Miya had been pretty quiet the whole time while listening, but his face had gotten darker and darker the longer Yaku talked and now he voiced his own thoughts. “What the actual fuck? What even is your problem? He likes you back and you...What? Run away?”

“I thought, I told you already. I’m not doing relationships with teammates.” Yaku bit out.

“And I said that that was bullshit. What’s wrong with trying? Omi and me are doing great just so you know. You don’t even have to be scared of being rejected, Komo-kun literally gave you the perfect opportunity, why aren’t you taking it?”

“I’m not doing it. What’s so hard about understanding that?!” Yaku shouted defensively, his patience wearing thin.

“What’s so hard about trying?!” Miya matched his volume.

“I ALREADY DID TRY!” Yaku snapped, before reeling back, eyes blown wide. 

“What.”

Yaku took a deep breath before he avoided eye contact and flatly stated, “I already fucked up a whole team. I’m not doing it again.”

“Stop. Wait. Just...what the hell are you talking about? I need you to back up.” Miya confusedly but urgently expressed.

A sigh escaped Yaku as he ran his fingers through his hair in slight distress as the memories resurfaced again. He didn’t actually want to talk about it, but Miya wouldn’t let it slip. He knew that. But this would probably change his opinion and would make him stop with his comments, so Yaku went all in.

“There was...this middleblocker.” Yaku began and looked at the court, “It was after I settled down in Russia and established my position. We were both starters and we kinda fell for each other. It didn’t take too long and we were dating and then we were in a relationship. It was...a good time. And the highs were fucking high. We would kill it on and off court. But the lows were really low. I’m pretty sure you know this, but the dynamic of a libero and a middle blocker is important and fragile. We need to function as a unit. Middle blockers are the first line of defense and liberos are the last line. If we can’t coordinate correctly, things will fall apart.” 

And now Yaku glanced back at Miya, “I’m sure you can guess where I’m going with this. It didn’t quite work out after all. It was a good time, but he wasn’t what I needed after all. So I broke up with him. It was kinda ugly. Lots of shouts. Lots of insults. And because I can’t fucking time anything right, we were still in a season. Still had three games to play.” 

“You lost?” 

“...Yeah. Things were ugly. You know how I normally only break the opponents spirits? My presence letting them make mistakes? Suddenly it almost felt like he was affected by that, too. He was hesitating, things didn’t quite work, so he was benched. And then I was benched. Depending on who we were facing. They didn’t want to let both of us play at the same time anymore. But you see, there was a reason why both of us were starters. We were fucking good, if one of us was missing, it was felt. The team got affected by the icyness of our interactions, too. We were probably lucky that there were only three and not more games left to play, so yeah. I fucked up a whole lot. The only silver lining was that he hadn’t planned on renewing his contract anyway and wanted to change teams, so he was gone by the next season.”

Miya just stared at him with wide eyes, apparently unable to form a response.

Yaku closed his eyes for a moment, before fixing them on Miya again. “As much as I like to shittalk you and Sakusa, I actually do think now that you two...fit kinda well together. And with the way you both are, I guess it wouldn’t affect the team much if you’d randomly decide to break up, you are always sniping comments at each other anyway. Not that I think that you’d break up. But I can’t with good sentience get into a relationship, right before the Olympics. I can’t mess up again.”

“That’s kind of a very pessimistic way to look at things. I mean these things happened in the past. Doesn’t mean they’ll happen again now.” Miya slowly spoke up.

Yaku just shook his head and raised his brow, “I’m not risking it. I know you like winning as much as I do, Miya. And what I did led to a few losses. I didn’t work this hard to make all of our efforts go to nothing and if I break a few hearts along the way, then so be it. Even if it’s my own.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to my agenda of Yaku and Atsumu actually share a lot of traits and would be really good friends if they'd just sit down and stop annoying each other for a single minute.
> 
> Also, when I started outlining this plot I was like...Yaku is the kind of person who'd just go with the flow. He has a crush? Well, of course he'd confess and try his best. Afraid of being rejected? Nah, that's not in his books. So I had to find a reason as to why he wouldn't just directly try his luck with Komori bc under normal circumstances I think he would. So I took the 8 year gap of Yaku's life and said, "It's free real estate". Sorry for hurting him with this but that was the only explanation I could find that’d make sense. 
> 
> Thanks for reading and feel free to scream at me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Nicini02) if you want!


	8. Chapter 8

Atsumu really didn’t know what he should do right now. After Yaku’s very brisant rant, the libero had left, murmuring something under his breath and overall seeming pretty dejected and Atsumu really couldn’t fault him for that. He might have started this whole jest out of fun, but honestly he kind of got invested in the story of his liberos. It was glaringly obvious how much they liked each other and the fact that they just….didn’t do anything made Atsumu want to punch something. He did understand why Yaku was so hesitant though. That had been...a really sad story, but that didn’t mean anything, right? They just had to take the dive and risk it, there was no point in looking back. Who needs memories and all that. And moreover, Atsumu really, really didn’t want to bear witness to the heartbreak Yaku was seemingly planning to do or already did.

God, he had to talk to Kiyoomi. They needed to do something about this. 

Nodding to himself, Atsumu stopped the showers, under which he probably stood for the last 10 minutes without moving, and got dressed, before going out to find Kiyoomi.

He found him in the cafeteria, sitting lonely on a chair, two cups in front of him and just...staring at them without blinking. He was alone and the lights were a bit dimmed and Atsumu...Atsumu was worried.

“Hey, Omi.” He quietly said while walking up to him. Jolting out of his position, Kiyoomi looked up at him in surprise, before a small smile settled onto his face, “Oh. It’s you.”

“Who else do you think would find you here, huh?” Atsumu softly chuckled, before looking down at the cups. They were empty. “Are you okay?”

The smile on Kiyoomi’s face instantly fell and he looked to the side as he nearly whispered, “No. No, I’m not.”

Within a second Atsumu sat down next to him, the sound of the moving chair grating in his ears, “What happened?” 

Omi-kun turned to the doors and murmured, “Motoya just left.”

Atsumu raised his brow, but let Omi think about the words in his head without interrupting. He knew that his partner sometimes needed that extra bit of time.

“He was pretty dejected today. Seemed kind of distracted. So I took it upon myself to ambush him after training.” 

“Oh yeah. About that.”

“Wait, you also noticed? I thought I was the only one. He was pretty inconspicuous about it.”

“Uhh...” Atsumu scratched his head as he answered, “No, not really. I was kind of a little bit occupied with Yakkun to be honest. Continue first.”

Omi just raised a brow at that before nodding, “Well, anyway. I obviously asked him what was wrong and he had the audacity to lie into my face, feigning ignorance as if I couldn’t see that something was on his mind.”

Atsumu tried to imagine a Komori who just laughed everything off, an innocent smile on his face. It really wasn’t hard to see it. Atsumu himself wouldn’t have guessed that Yaku had probably broken his heart just a day before, Komori had been grinning all too easy and effortlessly for that thought to ever cross his mind. 

“I invited him to have some tea, just to talk. And talking did he. I don’t even know how much gossip he suddenly pulled up but he was avoiding the topic of why I even invited him, to let it all out, denying everything right until the end.”

A frown made its way onto Kiyoomi’s face as he glared at the teacups.

“Well, he may have not said anything specific, but he did pull me into a hug to thank me after all, so I guess I did take his mind off of it for a bit.” 

A smile spread onto Atsumu’s face as he looked at Omi in amusement, seeing right through him, “Are you sure that you weren’t the one who initiated the hug?”

“No, of course not. Why would I do such a thing?” Omi literally pouted at him as his gaze flicked between the teacups and him.

“Awwww, you care about Komo-kun! Of course that’s why!”

“What does it even matter who initiated what? There was a hug, that’s all. But he STILL didn’t say anything, that stupid brat.”

Atsumu sighed as the weight of the situation got brought back down to him.

“I know why he was down.”

Omi’s head snapped up at him and a sharp gaze was sent his way, ushering him to continue.

“Well, he got his heart broken yesterday. Hard not to be dejected ‘bout that.”

“What. Tell me more.”

And that was what Atsumu did. He recalled how he had talked with Yaku, how Yaku had told him about what had happened after the team night and then about his reasons. Kiyoomi didn’t interrupt a single time, just frowned more and more as the story went on and when Atsumu finished, there was a beat of silence.

Until suddenly Kiyoomi stood up and turned to the exit. He was able to take a single step before Atsumu scrambled, “Wait, where are you going?”

When Kiyoomi turned around, he had raised a brow at him, face carefully blank but the furious glimmer in his eyes did not escape Atsumu.

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m going to go and kill him.”

“Huh? Wait, why? No, he had his reasons.”

“I don’t care about that. This did not give him any excuse to just up and do this. He at least could’ve heard Motoya out. He didn’t even give him that so now I WILL make him listen.”

Atsumu in his panic grabbed Kiyoomi’s hands and urgently looked into his eyes. 

“No. We can’t just do this. Look, we didn’t do all this matchmaking, all the planning of them realizing their feelings, the bonding nights, the ship name, just for it all to go naught.”

“And look where it got us. They are both heartbroken. I was willing to do this because I thought they might end up happy. I was rooting for them as much as you did. But now that Yaku did this, I have no qualms to give him what he deserves and if what he deserves isn’t Motoya, then so be it.”

“Stop. You’re not looking at the big picture here, Omi-Omi.” Atsumu tipped his index against his chin in thought, when he suddenly lit up and clicked his fingers.

“Actually it’s fairly easy. They BOTH like each other. This ain’t titanic yet, this ship ain’t going nowhere. All we need to do is just force Yakkun into not having another choice than to accept it. Then both of them can be happy and this team is saved.”

Kiyoomi narrowed his eyes at him, “Yeah. I was about to force Yaku to listen. That’s exactly what I was going to do.”

“Damnit Omi-kun. Not like that. We need to be delicate, there’s already a crack and Yakkun’s not going to just say yes after that downer of a relationship before, but I believe in Komo-kuns ability to persuade him in the end. I mean, you see how they play off of each other. They are both genuinely smiling more around the other, they work and fit together. It’s love if I dare say so myself. We just need to lay the groundwork out a bit more.”

Omi kun just crossed his arms in front of him. “I don’t like this. How are we supposed to do that? Yaku seemed pretty insistent from your story.”

“How about we both being a bit bolder? Let’s take them out for dinner.”

“What? You do realize they are eating quite often together? What’s that going to do?”

“But not with us. It will be like a double date. We just can’t let Yaku know that the idea came from me. So you’ll be the one who’ll have to ask Komo-kun. Make up something about wanting to treat him ‘cause he was so down. He wouldn’t want to be a third wheel, so he’ll ask Yaku who won’t say no to free food and we’ll just lay the PDA on so thickly that they have no other choice than to turn to each other. Yaku will see how nice of a relationship there can be between teammates, Komori will yearn and try something again, this time directly, and everyone’s going to be happy. The end.”

Omi-kun seemed to roll his words around in his mind, thinking them through before finally nodding. “Okay. But if this doesn’t work out and Motoya ends up being sad again, you can’t stop me from killing Yaku.”

A chuckle escaped Atsumu as he nodded, “Don’t worry, it will be fine.”

*

Nothing about this whole situation was fine. Motoya was distracted. Yaku could see that. He had kind of avoided Motoya in the evening after he had ranted to Miya, but it wasn’t like there was much to avoid anyway. Motoya had been glued to his phone when he had come back to the room later at night and they just silently had wished each other a good rest.  
And today? Today hasn't been any different. Yaku didn’t exactly know who Motoya was texting, but he practically hadn’t settled the phone down for a single minute except for when they had their morning practice. Which was now over. And Motoya had almost sprinted back to his bag to get his phone out again. Yaku didn’t know if he was the only one who saw this change. Honestly, it wasn’t like Motoya wasn’t always on his phone, but he also hadn’t talked and looked at Yaku for more than necessary. He was still his usual cheery self, smile plastered on his face but he just...he just kind of avoided Yaku. 

A sigh escaped Yaku as he turned around to leave the gym with Bokuto who he had just been talking to. It was probably what he deserved, this was for the best. He couldn’t stop the slight sting it caused in his heart though. Motoya had no obligation to be all around Yaku, they were just friends. Just friends who happened to share a room and maybe some unresolved feelings, but nothing more.

“Morisuke! Hey, wait!” Yaku suddenly felt a warm hand grip his wrist and he turned around to Motoya looking at him with urgent eyes. 

“Can we please talk for a moment?”

Yaku almost flinched but instead closed his eyes for a moment. Okay, so apparently they were doing this now. That was fine, he could get through this.

“Huh? Is everything okay with you both?” With furrowed brows and a thoughtful expression on his face, Bokuto looked back and forth between them. 

“Wonderful. Everything’s perfect. I just need to kidnap Mori for a little bit. Just some liberotalk, don’t worry!” Motoya chimed up, crinkles around his eyes as he smiled at Bokuto. It was the picture perfect image of how Motoya always looked like. Nice, open-minded, cheerful. It had never seemed more fake to Yaku than right now. 

“Sooo, are you coming?” Motoya raised his brow at Yaku when Yaku didn’t answer and tugged at Yaku’s wrist for good measure and _oh_. Yaku hadn’t realized that Motoya hadn’t let go yet. 

“Yeah, sure.” Yaku nodded at Bokuto before Motoya turned around and pulled Yaku with him. For a moment Yaku couldn’t do anything but stare at the hand clasping around his wrist, but then he felt observed and as he looked up to the other side of the gym, Miya was watching him with a raised brow. Shaking his head, Yaku broke eye contact and followed Motoya through the backdoor of the gym into a random hallway.

When he turned to face Yaku again, Motoya wasn’t smiling anymore. His round eyebrows were furrowed in a concerned expression, and he avoided looking into Yaku’s eyes.

“So, what is it?”  
“So, about yesterday.”  
Both of them said at the same time and halted. Yaku was sure as hell that he knew what Motoya wanted to talk about, but that sentence made him stop. Yesterday? The night where he had dismissed Motoya had been two days ago. They had mostly ignored each other yesterday, what did he want to talk about?

Scratching the back of his head, Motoya started, “Well, you know. Following the evening practice I, uh, talked with Kiyoomi. Just about some...stuff, nothing too important. After the conversation I left again, but I also didn’t want to...go to our room yet.” Yaku knew that it was his fault. He looked away.

“So after a bit I figured, hey, why not annoy Kiyoomi just that little while longer, y’know? It’s not like he had anything to do, right? So I walked back, but at that time, Atsumu had joined him.”

Okay? Yaku wasn’t too sure where Motoya was going with this, and so he just tilted his head in apprehension.

“They didn’t hear me when I walked to the door, but then I heard them say my name and I got curious and I listened in without their knowledge. And then...they were talking about you, too.”

What?

Motoya blinked and suddenly had a guarded expression on his face, before he hesitantly started, “Did you know that the both of them have been trying to get us together for quite a while now?” 

Yaku flinched. He didn’t like this one bit. For a moment the bitter taste of betrayal went through him. He had fucking told Miya to not get into his business from the beginning. Why would he go against that? What was he getting from that? 

“What?” Yaku icily answered, “What exactly did they do?” 

Motoya pressed his lips into a thin line before he answered, “I don’t know the exact details, but I guess, they somehow came up with the whole MoriMori thing. And the uhh bonding night was also planned by them.” Yaku tried not to remember how that one had led to Motoya hugging him for quite awhile. He also tried not to remember every single interaction he had with Miya. How much of that had been planned to just fuck with him? He had actually thought that he’d be getting along with him now, but turns out Miya was just trying to reach a goal no one wanted. 

“I guess there was also some other stuff, but yeah. Seemed like they were trying to do it for a long while now actually.” Motoya crossed his arms in front of him as he looked to the side with an expression on his face Yaku couldn’t quite read. 

However, Yaku was certain about one thing. Both of them just avoided the real conversation right now which was the part that it somehow had worked. They did catch feelings after all, right? But Motoya didn’t say anything about it and Yaku didn’t want to bring it up, so he just pressed out behind gritted teeth, “Thanks for telling me. I’ll be on my way to _talk_ to them about it.”

He was about to go when suddenly Motoya’s voice reverberated through the empty hall, “That wasn’t all.” Something about the serious tone, that Motoya really didn’t wield often, made Yaku flinch and when he turned around again, Motoya was finally looking into his eyes. “Atsumu was also retelling...what you and him were talking about yesterday.”

Yaku’s blood ran cold as he could only stare at Motoya. No. Fuck no. He couldn’t be serious, could he? Yaku thought about what he had told Miya in a moment of weakness. It had felt right to open up for a moment, he had felt fine talking about it. He thought that he could trust him not to tell other people. It’s not like he explicitly stated it, but Miya wasn’t dumb, was he? He should have known that this was personal. There was a reason why Yaku didn’t tell that story to many people, so what gave Miya the right to turn around and immediately tell it to someone else? Honestly, Yaku was pissed. And angry.

Worst of all was that the one person Yaku really didn’t want to know about it, was currently standing right in front of him with something like pity in his eyes. Yaku didn’t need pity. He had known what he had done, he wouldn’t do it again. That was all there was to it. By all means, Yaku shouldn’t feel so vulnerable with this part of his past opened up to Motoya, but somehow he was.

“I’m...I’m sorry.” Motoya started after Yaku hadn’t spilled a single word in the few seconds they were standing there. “I know I should have left and I know that this really wasn’t supposed to be something I should have heard, not in this way at least, but I still listened in and...”

“What.” Yaku finally interrupted in a toneless voice, “What exactly did Miya say?”

Motoya’s face turned into a dark expression when he answered, “Well, he was talking about your past experience with dating teammates and-”

“Okay.” Yaku just turned around and walked back to the door leading to the gym.

“What? Wait, Mori-”

“No.”

“Don’t you think we should talk about this? I-”

Yaku cut off Motoya by turning his face around to make eye contact, eyes ablaze and hand still on the door handle. It made Motoya freeze in place. “We can talk about it. But not now. Just give me...Give me a bit.”

Not waiting for an answer, Yaku stepped through the entrance and walked back into the gym, door falling behind him with a dull sound.

*

Heart pumping a million beats per minute, Yaku walked through the gym. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. What the hell should he do now? He couldn’t exactly run from Motoya, he really didn’t want to actuallly, but he just needed some time...to process what the fuck just happened. Because how on earth should he react to his lowest moments being disclosed like that? 

“Yakkuuun!” Abruptly Yakkun stopped and snapped his head up to look at Miya fucking Atsumu who somehow still was in the gym and walked over to him, lazy grin on his face and mischievous twinkle in his eyes. 

“Sooo, what did you and Komo-kun talk about, hmmm?” Miya nudged him with his elbow, “I saw you leaving toge-”

Yaku was acting fast and on instinct and without a thought, because he was not about to have this shit right now, with the person who was mostly at fault for his misery. He grabbed his collar and with a precise movement, turned and pushed Miya into the wall right behind him. 

Staring up at him with a glare and leaning forward, Yaku hissed with fire behind his words, all too easy to hear, “Don’t fucking touch me.” 

Miya sucked in a breath in surprise, gaze dropping down to Yaku’s hand that was still holding him in place, “Actually, you are-”

Yaku cut him off by pushing him against the wall again, before letting go and turning around.

“What the heck?! It ain’t my fault if you were arguing, don’t take it out on me!” 

Stopping, Yaku looked at Miya’s affronted face and felt his eyes twitch in annoyance.

“Take some responsibility for a change.”

“Huh? Wait what are you talking about? I didn’t do anything!”

A humorless laugh escaped Yaku at the blatant lie as he sneered, “Sure. You know exactly what you did and said.”

Miya scrunched his eyebrows and held his hands up to feign peace, “Okay, I don’t know what the hell you are projecting right now, but whatever you guys were talking about, I don’t have anything to do with it. I just wanted to know what happened, jeez.”

Miya really had the ability to get onto Yaku’s nerves really fast and he also had to start a conversation at the worst possible moment, so Yaku really didn’t give a fuck anymore and let his thoughts out.  
“Yeah, of course you didn’t. You are the only damn person in this team I told about my past relationship. What the hell is wrong with you that you just turn around and tell the next person who’s available? I TRUSTED YOU. Just because I didn’t explicitly state that you shouldn’t tell anyone, doesn’t mean that it’s not common sense! You can’t be that dense, it was PERSONAL!”

Miya reeled back with wide eyes before looking to the side where Motoya just opened the door to the gym again and stopped mid step when he saw the both of them talking. The door fell into the angles with a loud echo.

“I- I didn’t. I didn’t tell Komori.”

“SO? And that makes it better? You told Sakusa, didn’t you?!”

Miya just looked him into the eyes and answered, “Okay, I did. But I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t intend for Komori to know it, too. I don’t even know how he learned of it!”

Yaku was narrowing his eyes at him, veins growing icily cold just like his voice as he hissed, “I really would like to believe you, but it’s kind of a bit difficult to do so, considering you were planning everything from the beginning despite knowing what I thought about it.”

Miya narrowed his eyes at him as he answered, “’m not sure I can follow.”

A heated glare got thrown back at him, but Miya didn’t react to it.

“Then let me spell it out for you. Who the fuck do you think you are that you can mess around with me and try to play matchmaker or some bullshit. Get it out of your head that you’re some kind of conductor, because you aren’t.”

Maybe it was the tone with which Yaku said this, maybe it was just meant to be for the two of them to collide their heads, maybe there was no other way than this outcome from the beginning, but obviously Miya didn’t like being talked to like that so he just viciously shot back, “Well, I’m sorry that I just wanted to see the two of you pursuing happiness. It’s not my fault that you were really miserable and too chicken to do anything, so I just thought I’d lend a hand. Because I’m a setter and care for this team!”

Something in Yaku snapped at that. He knew he was temperamental, he knew that he sometimes lost it, but if he was honest, he didn’t care at all. He had thought that Miya was a friend, but friends aren’t supposed to manipulate another. Moreover, something about Miya’s answer and tone really rubbed him the wrong way and Yaku was hotblooded and he still felt vulnerable and betrayed and confused and angry and he had too many feelings he didn’t know what to do with. So he did the only thing he could think of and let them out.

With a coldness that cut through the tension he spoke up, “You know what? Fuck you. Fuck everything. Caring about this team? Yeah, sure. I’m going to tell you exactly how I see it right now.”

The thing about Yaku was that he knew how people ticked. He watched and observed and he saw mistakes and weaknesses and he was able to plunge into them with brutal honesty. He knew how to break his opponent’s hearts. He knew how intimidating he could be. It was actually fairly easy. And he had watched Miya long enough to know how he ticked and maybe he was cruel, but so be it.

Let it be known that he, Yaku Morisuke, knew how to break people’s spirits, whether it was on or off the court.

“You think you are so great and are so entitled with yourself, but you know what? You aren’t. Do you think I’m fucking blind? I am not. I’ve known that you always had some kind of problem with me as a libero, probably because you can’t set to me. I know that you treat your spikers differently than everyone else. And I see how you probably get off of the fact that every spiker is dancing to your tune. Every time you set to one of them you have this stupid grin on your face as you use them how you see fit. And I don’t have a problem with that. At all. It works great and is just the way how things are. But that’s on the court, in a fucking game. In case you didn’t notice, life is not a game. And just because Motoya and me are liberos and therefore the only people you can’t fucking command and use like your pawns on the court, doesn’t mean that you get to do it off of it.”

Miya flinched and unwillingly took a step back, but Yaku wasn’t finished yet.

“We are not your fucking puppets and you are not some puppetmaster. You can’t just turn around and use living people and manipulate them into whatever you might feel is enjoyable.  
You can’t control people and expect their fucking feelings to follow whatever you think might work. You’re no conductor and no one here is bound to follow you. Get that in your stupid head the next time you think messing with other people’s lives is a fun activity because it’s not. I don’t know where you got the insane idea that matchmaking me is going to bring anyone happiness since I told you right from the start that I did not come here for this, but apparently you are unable to understand anything about people’s feelings. So I’m just going to give you a simple command that even your tiny brain should be able to comprehend and follow: Fuck off and don’t touch my private life again.” 

Miya gave him no response, just looked at him in shock at a loss for words and so Yaku’s glare flicked to Sakusa who stood a few steps behind Miya and probably had heard quite a lot of his words when he had made his way over to them.

“The same goes to you, by the way.” Yaku icily barked out, earning another flinch and before anyone could say something, he turned around to make his exit.

A whispered and half mumbled “I can’t wait to be back in Russia and see none of your faces anymore” was all that was heard before the gym door slammed shut like an explosion that left a weighing silence behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...I'm sorry.
> 
> Okay, so a little backstory to this: Yaku snapping at Atsumu was one of the very first things I planned and actually wrote out (in a much messier way) for this whole fic. But it's also the one scene I hesitated most to actually post. I could've made this more fluffy and humorous. I almost scrapped this out & had an alternative to this planned. At the end I decided against it.  
> Bc one of the things I wanted to show with this fic is that matchmaking is a lot of fun for everyone involved...except for the ppl getting matchmaked when they don't know about it. Even more so when they made it clear from the beginning that this isn't what they wanted.  
> I think...sometimes it's fairly easy to forget that even though you might think you do the best and have the most noble intentions...it still just isn't right. And will come off as not so noble. So yeah, that is something that happened right here.  
> Nobody is at fault here. Please don't hate Atsumu or Sakusa, they really just wanted the best and also please don't hate Yaku bc he really felt betrayed and sometimes you need to lash out to protect yourself.  
> Also, ngl, I am kind of liberofixated (please check out the [liberozine](https://twitter.com/liberozine), I also had the honor of writing something for it) so when Atsumu's "He treats his spikers with utmost care" came, I always had to wonder what a libero, who is the only person on court who will never spike a set from Atsumu, would think about that. Yaku is not dumb, so of course he knows that Atsumu treats his spikers special...I thought it might be interesting to look at this very wholesome quote from a different angle so I explored and twisted it here. With a bang.
> 
> Well, the only way from here on is up, so please look forward to the rest of this fic. Thank you and I hope you still enjoyed this!  
> ALSO A HUGE THANKS FOR 100 KUDOS?! It's insane that I could pull so many of you into this rarepair, so much love to you all! <3
> 
>   
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Nicini02)  
> [CuriousCat](https://curiouscat.qa/Nicini02)


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